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CENEHAL JAMES EWELL BKOWN STUART, 

That Chivalrous Young Knight and Christian Soldior— Graduate of West 
Point— At the Age of 28 Commanding the Cavalry of the Army of North- 
ern Virglnlii— At 29 Riding Twice Around McClellan's Great Army— At 30 
Selected by (Jcnera! Lee to Command Stonewall Jackson's Corps— Dead 
at 31. 

This Picture Most Resembles the Cavalry Chief as His Soldiers Remem- 
ber Him. But You Should See Him on Horseback With the Familiar Long 
Black Plume in His Cocked Hat and Hear the Midnight Woods and Hills 
Echoing the Song, "We'll Follow the Feather of Stuart Tonight." 



FROM BULL RUN 
TO APPOMATTOX 



A BOY'S VIEW 



BY 

LUTHER W. HOPKINS 
OF GENL. J. E. 13. Stuart's cavalry 
6th Virginia Regiment, C. S. A. 



PRESS CF 

Flekt-McGinley Co. 
baltimorr 



.H793 



Copyright, 1914 

Uy I.. \V. HOPKINS 

Riiltimorc 



TBANSFERnCD FROM 
CCPYR.'aHT OKf/CE 



m 14 (91 



^ 



PREFACE 

"Life Is the mirror of the> king and BlaT«, 

'TIs just what you are and do. 
Then give to the world the best you hare, 

And the Ixjst will come back to you." 

I never thought that I should be guilty of writing a book, and 
I have not done it with malicious intent. My son is responsible for 
whatever sin I may have committed in presenting it to the public. 
He and I have been good friends ever since we became acquainted, 
and he has always insisted upon my telling him all that I know. 
When he was about three years old he discovered that I had been 
a soldier in Lee's army from 1861 to 1S65, and, although he is of 
Quaker descent and a loyal member of the Society of Friends, and 
I am half Quaker, yet he loved war stories and I loved to tell them. 
This accounts for the production of the book. After I had told him 
these stories over and over, again and again, when he was grown 
he insisted upon my starting at the beginning and giving him the 
whole of my experience in the Confederate army. Then he wanted 
it published. I yielded to his request, and here is the book. This 
is not, however, an exact copy of the typewritten manuscript which 
he has. The original manuscript is more personal. I thought certain 
changes would make it more acceptable to the general reader. 

We all believe in peace; universal peace, but when war docs come, 
and such a costly war as the -onc.of .Vhich these stories treat, we 
ought to get all the good out of it we can. The long marches along 
dusty roads, under hot suns, the long marches through sleet and 



4 PREFACE 

snows, the long, dreary nights without shelter, the march of the 
picket to and fro on his beat, the constant drilling and training, the 
struggle on the battlefields — all these are incidental to the formative 
period in the history of a nation. While there are some things about 
war that we should forget, there are many things that ought never 
to be forgotten, but should be handed down from sire to son all 
through the ages that are to come. 

Historians have told us much about our Civil War, but they have 
left out the part that appeals most to the boy, and it is this part that 
I have tried to bring before the public. Men may read the book if 
they will, but it is written more particularly for the youth. The boy 
of today and the boy that is yet to be ought to know of the bloody 
sweat through which this nation passed in reaching its present 
position among the great nations of the earth, and the part the boy 
played in it. It is said that one boy is a boy; two boys a half boy 
and three boys no boy at all. That may be true of the boy running 
loose, unbridled like a colt, but gather up these boys and train them, 
harness and hitch them and they will move the world or break 
a trace. It is the boy who decides the fate of nations. I don't know 
the average age of our soldiers in times of peace, but when wars come 
and there is a call for soldiers, it is mainly the boy in his teens who 
responds ; yet, strange to say, the historian has never thought it worth 
while to put much emphasis upon what the boy does in the upbuilding 
of a nation. 

Another thing that has been neglected by the historian is the brave 
and noble part the horse took in our war. The grays, the bays, the 
sorrels, the roans, the chestnuts, have not been forgotten in this 
story. Indeed, as I have already said, I have tried to bring to light 
that part of the story of our Civil War that has not been told. 

Now, young men and boys, girls too, old men, if there are any, 
read this book, all of you, regardless of geographical lines, for I 
have tried to be fair to those who wore the blue. As the years go 



PREFACE 5 

by, I have learned to respect and admire those who fought for the 
Union. I visited Boston and its environments two summers ago for 
the first time. During the visit I did not meet a person whom I had 
ever seen before, yet all the time that I was away I felt at home. I said 
to myself. Are these the people we of the South used to hate? Are 
these the people that we once mobbed as they marched through our 
streets? Yes, they are the same people or their descendants, but 
then we did not know them and they did not know us. I came back 
feeling proud of my country, and I only wish I could give here a 
detailed account of that visit. If, early in the spring of i86l, the 
North and South had exchanged visits, each party would have gone 
home singing, "there ain't goin' to be no war." But we had a war — 
a great war, a costly war; let us forget what ought to be forgotten 
and remember what ought to be remembered. I want to pay this 
tribute to the Northern soldiers : I have discovered that when two 
armies of equal numbers met face to face in the open, it was nearly 
always a toss up as to who would win. Numbers don't always count 
in battle. General Hooker, with his army of 130,000, retreating before 
Lee's 60,000, doesn't mean that one Rebel could whip two Yankees. 
It only meant that "Fighting Joe" had more than he could manage. 
His numbers were an encumbrance. There were other differences 
which, for the sake of brevity, I will not mention, but will add this 
one word: One bluecoat was all I cared to face, and I believe every 
other Johnny Reb will say the same thing. 

May we never have another war ! But, boys, remember : "Peace 
hath her victories no less renowned than war," and the boy that 
wishes to count in this world must train. There are, however, other 
training schools quite as helpful as the camp and the battlefield. 

LUTHER W. HOPKINS. 
Baltimore, November, 1908. 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 

The first edition of this personal narrative, representing "A Boy's 
View" of the great tragedy of '6i to '65, having been exhausted, a 
second carefully revised edition is now offered to the public. This 
latter volume contains five new chapters — some corrections and addi- 
tions have been made to the original chapters — the character of the 
illustrations has been improved and several interesting ones added. 
But the reader who wishes to get a clear understanding of the story 
must note carefully the improvement in the maps and study them. 

As much stress has been laid upon the fact that this was a boys' 
war, the following statement will prove interesting : 

Senator McCumber of the Senate Pension Committee has just 
caused to be prepared an interesting table relative to the ages of 
soldiers at the times of enHstmcnt. This table shows that of the 
total number of enlistments, aggregating 2,778,309 for the Union 
Army and Navy, the number of enlistments at various ages was as 
follows : 

At the age of 1 1 and under 63 

" " " " 13 " " 525 

" " " " 15 " " 100,512 

" " '■■ " 17 " " 1,075.943 

" " " " 18 " " 1,151.438 

" " " "21 " " 2,159,798 

" " " " 22 and older 618,511 

" " " "25 " " 46,625 

" " " " 44 and over 16,071 

Over 2,000,000 of these were re-enlistments. This accounts for 

large enrollment. 

Luther W. Hopkins. 
Baltimore, January, 191 1. 



THIRD EDITION. 



A third edition of this book is published owing to the growing 
demand from schools and libraries. This has come from no par- 
ticular section, thus proving the value of the work as a part of our 
"Civil War" history. In this edition the narrative has been revised 
and strengthened. The many flattering testimonials received from 
both sides are exceedingly gratifying and cheering to 

The Author. 

January, 1915. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I. 
From Harper's Ferry to Bull Run. 

Loudoun County, on the Potomac— John Brown's Raid— War Talk Among 
the Schoolboys— The Slave and Ills Master— Election of Lincoln— Seces- 
sion— Schoolboys Preparing for the Coming Conflict— Firing on Fort Sum- 
ter— Union Army Crossing the Potomac. I'ages 11 to 29. 

CHAPTER H. 

From Bull Run to Seven Pines. 
Confederates Concentrating at Manassas— First Rattle— The Wounded 
Horse — Rout of the Union Army— The Losses. Pages 30 to 37. 

CHAPTER HI. 

From Bull Run to Seven Pines. (Continued.) 

Long Rest— Each Side Recruiting Its Armies — McOlollan in Command- 
Ills March on Richmond by the Way of the James River- Jackson's 
Brilliant Valley Campaign— The Battles Around Richmond— Seven Pines— 
Mechanlcsville — Beaver Dam— Gaines' Mill- Fair Oaks — The Wounding of 
Gen. Jos. E. Johnston— McClellan's Defeat— The Spoils of the Battle. 
I'ages 38 to 45. 

CHAPTER IV. 

From Seven Pines to Antietam. 

The Battle of Cedar Run— Jackson's Flank Movement— McClellan Moves 
His Army Back to Washington— Second Battle of Manassas— The Defeat 
of Pope — His Retreat to the Defenses of Washington— The Captured 
Stores and Losses on Both Sides- Lee Crosses the I'otomac Into Mary- 
land—The Stragglers of Lee's Army— A Dinner Party— The Capture of 
Harper's Ferry— Battle of Antietam— Result of the Battle— Lee Kecrossea 
the Potomac— Lee's Army in a Trap. I'ages 46 to 57. 

CHAPTER V. 
From Antietam to Chancellorsville. 

McClellan Relieved of Ills Command— Burnside Commands the Union Army— 
The Two Armies at Fredericksburg— The Blue Ridge Mountain— The 
Author a Prisoner- Battle of Fredericksburg- Burnside's Defeat— Losses 
on Both Sides- The Armies in Winter Quarters— How They Spent the 
Winter— Company Q's Escapade— Raid Into West Virginia- Burnside 
Relieved— Hooker in Command— Hooker Crossing the Rappahannock- 
Jackson's Successful Flank Movement— Ills Mortal Wound— Hooker's 
Defeat— He Recrosses the River— Losses on Both Sides— Stonewall Jack- 
son's Death— The South In Tears— Ode to Stonewall Jackson by a Union 
Officer. Pages 58 to 88. 

CHAPTER VI. 

From Chancellorsville to Gettysburg. 
Ninth of June at Brandy Station— Lee's Army En Route for Gettysburg- 
See Map— Stuart's March Around the Union Army— Lee Crosses the 
Potomac— The Union Army in a Parallel Line With Lee's— Crosse* the 



8 CONTENTS 

Potomac Below Harper's Ferry— Hooker Relieved— Meade In Command of 
the Union Army- The Battle of Gettysburg— Lee's First Defeat— His 
Retreat— The Midnight's Thunder Storm— Ilia Five Days' Rest on tb« 
North Banlc of the I'otomac- lie Recrosses the River. I'ages 89 to 113. 

CHAPTER VII. 

From Gettysburg to the Wilderness. 
Both Armies Marching Back to the Rappahannock— Short Rest— Meade's 
Advance— Lee Retires to the Rapidan— Meade's Withdrawal From Lee's 
Front— Lee's Advance — FiglitinR Around Brandy Station— Tlie Battle at 
Bristoe Station— The Union Army Retires Towards Washington— Lee 
Discontinues tlie I'ursuit and Returns to the Rapidan River— In Winter 
Quarters— How the Winter Was Spent— Many of Lee's Soldiers Are Per- 
mitted to Return to Their Homes Under Care of Their Commanding 
Officers for a Vacation— Mos^by Appears Upon the Scene. I'ages 114 to 141. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

From the Wilderness to James River. 

Grant in Command of the Union Army— Preparation for the Coming 
Striigslo— Battle of The Wildeniess— Strengtli of tlie Armies— Losses- 
Wounding of General Longstroot— Battle at Spottsylvania Court House — 
The Awful Slaughter— Slieridan's Raid on Richmond— Stuart's Cavalry In 
Pursuit— General Stuart's Death— Yellow Tavern— The Author Again a 
I'risoner. I'ages 142 to 167. 

CHAPTER IX. 
From James River to Petersburg. 

Battle of Cold Harbor— Grant Again Repulsed- Death of Flournoy— Grant 
Crossing the .Tames— Prison Life at Point Lookout— Parole of the Sick 
From the Hospitals— The Dreary Winter— Its Bright Side— How the 
Soldiers and the Citizens Spent It— Mosby's Men— The Long Siege- 
Battle of the Crater. Pages 168 to 191. 

CHAPTER X. 

From Petersburg to Appomattox. 
Evacuation of Richmond— Retreat of Lee's Army Towards Appomattox- 
Lee's Surrender— After the Surrender— Some War Stories— The Faithful 
Slave. Pages 192 to 207. 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Horses of Lee's Army. 
Their Number— Losses— Rover's Tricks— A Mighty .Taw— Her Capture- 
Horses in Battle— Friendship Between Horse and Rider— Wagon Horses- 
Artillery Horses— Cavalry Horses— Two Black Horses In Battle — Men 
Sleep on Their Horses— Horses for Breastwork— Seventy-five "ThousaDd 
Black Beauties— Monument for Lee's Horses— A Pathetic Poem. Paces 
«)8 to 223. 

CHAPTER XII. 

What We Did After the War. 
A Great Surprise— The Foundation of Our Hope— Virginia a Howling Wll- 
nernoss— Making the Crops— When Freedom Dawned on the Slaves— Postal 
Routes— Rebuilding— War Relics— The First Harvest- The Deserters— In 
Debt — Wedding Bells — A Bridegroom's Tragedy — Oenone — Unwritten 
Tragedies— Mothers Searching Graveyards— Hidden Treasures— Children 
and Slaves— iNIy Old Kentucky Home— The Dead Nation— Two Magnani- 
mous Grand Army Men— A Tribute to Federal Valor. Pages 224 to 249. 



CONTENTS 9 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Famous Horses and Their Riders. 

Traveller and Ills Rider— General Lee in a Thunder Storm— The Lone Cot- 
tage— Traveller's Death— I'en Pictures of Traveller— I^etters of General 
Lee About His Horses— Little Sorrel— Two I'resldenta on Horseback — 
Stuart's Horses— rx)ng Tom— The Armisteads— The Aahby Horses— Tragic 
Death of Both Riders and Horses. I'ages 2iO to 274. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Waterloo and Aitomattox. 
Jefferson Davis- What the South Gained- Both Sides Won— Our War Pic- 
tures—Jackson's Valley Campaign— A I'en I'icture. Pages 275 to 294. 

CHAPTER XV. 
Another Pen Picture. 
Lee's Army Asleep— How the Soldiers Sleep— How Sambo Sleeps— The Camp 
Fires- How the Horses Sleep— When Churchyards Yawn. I'ages 295 to 298. 

CHAPTER XVI. 
A Pen Picture of Two Armies Playing for Position. 

Gettysburg-The Night Before the Battle— Still Fighting— The End. Pages 
2S9 to End. 



r 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

General James Ewell Brown Stuart Frontispiece 

History of the Flags 14 

Jefferson Davis 30 

Robert Howarb Hopkins 46 

Luther W. Hopkins "... 62 

The Last Meeting of Lee and Jackson at Chancellorsville 78 

Jackson Monument at Chancellorsville 87 

Position of the Two Armies at Gettysburg, Last Day . . in 

General Robert E. Lee 142 

Mrs. Robert E. Lee i43 

General Fitzhugh Lee 150 

Stuart Monument at Yellow Tavern 158 

Corp. John L. Smith i74 

Charles Parkhill 17S 

Parole 207 

Bishop Alpheus W. Wilson 222 

Good Old Rebel War Song 238 

A Battle- Scarred Confederate Banner 239 

Traveller . 254 

General Louis Addison Armistead 270 

Old Sorrel 286 

General Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson . . . 295 

Map Showing Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign . . 295 

Recumbent Statue of Robert Edward Lee 312 

The Conquered Banner 3^3 

Map of Territory Covered by Lee's Army The end 



I 






From Bull Run to Appomattox 

A BOY'S VIEW 
Chapter I. 

From Harper s Ferry to Bull Run. 

"O war, thou hast thy fierce delight, 
Thy gleams of joy intensely bright; 
Such gleams as from thy polished shield 
Fly dazzling o'er the battle-field." 

Is there a boy in all this wide land, North or 
South, who would not like to hear what a boy has to 
say of his experience as a private soldier in the Con- 
federate Army from 1861 to 1865, serving for the 
most part in Stuart's Cavalry of Lee's army? Men 
have told their story, and graphically told it from 
a man's standpoint. But who has spoken for the 
boy? Who has told of the part the boy played in 
that great drama that was on the stage for four 
years without intermission — that bloody drama 
which cost the country eight billions in money 
and more than half a million human lives. 

n 



12 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

I do not know how it was in the Northern armies, 
but the bulk of Lee's soldiers in the ranks were boys 
in their teens. It was these boys who made Thomas 
Jonathan Jackson, "Stonewall" Jackson; who put 
Robert E. Lee's name in the Hall of Fame and who 
lifted J. E. B. Stuart up to the rank of lieutenant- 
general of cavalry. One of these boys has written 
the story as he remembers it in plain, simple lan- 
guage; not a history, but simply an account of what 
he saw and did while this eventful history was be- 
ing made. If his experience is different from 
others, or does not accord in all respects with what 
the historian has written, it is because we do not all 
see alike. The writer has not consulted the his- 
tories for material for this story; he did not have to 
do this. If all the boys who served in the Confed- 
erate Army were to write their experiences, they 
would all be different, yet all approximately cor- 
rect, and perhaps, taken together, would be the 
most perfect history that could be written of the 
Confederate side of the Civil War. 

In the early spring of 1861 I was seventeen years 
old and going to school about half a mile from my 
home in Loudoun county, Virginia. Twelve miles 
distant was Harper's Ferry, where two years be- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 13 

fore John Brown had made an attempt to raise an 
insurrection among the slaves in that vicinity. He 
seized the United States arsenal located there, for 
the purpose of arming the negroes, who were ex- 
pected to flock to his standard and have their free- 
dom declared. The negroes did not respond ; John 
Brown and a few of his followers were captured 
and hanged. This atrocious act of Brown and his 
abettors kindled a flame in the hearts of the South- 
ern people that led to the Civil War. But none 
felt it so keenly as did the Virginians, because it 
was their sacred soil that had been desecrated. 
Three years before this, when I was twelve years 
of age, I remember to have heard a political dis- 
cussion among a body of men, and the following 
words have lingered in my memory ever since; 
they are all that I can recall of their talk: "If 
there is a war between the North and South, Vir- 
ginia will be the battlefield." I thought it would 
be grand, and waited anxiously for the fulfillment 
of this prophecy. When John Brown swooped 
down on Harper's Ferry with his cohorts, it looked 
as if the day had really come and that the predic- 
tion was about to be fulfilled. From that time war 
talk was general, especially among the small boys. 



14 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

But the intense excitement caused by the Brown 
episode gradually abated. It broke out afresh, 
however, when it was announced that Abraham 
Lincoln had been elected President of the United 
States. It seemed to be the consensus of opinion 
that the result would be war, and that Virginia in 
truth would be the battleground, and that the coun- 
ties along the Potomac would receive the first shock 
of battle. We boys of Loudoun county, right on 
the Potomac, felt that we were "It," and we had a 
kind of pity for those poor fellows a little farther 
back. We were in the front row, and when the cur- 
tain should go up we should see and hear every- 
thing. There were about thirty boys attending our 
school between the ages of fifteen and twenty. 
They all entered the Confederate Army, and few 
survived the war. 

Before going on with the story perhaps I ought 
to explain why these boys were so eager for war, 
when they knew that the enemy would be their own 
countrymen. There was a peculiar relationship 
existing between the slave owner's family and the 
slaves that the North never did and never will un- 
derstand. On the part of the white children it was 
love, pure and simple, for the slave, and on the 




iiis'i'oKV ui- riii'; FLA(;s. 



Ceulcr Flag— Tlio ■fcjlais aud Liars" was the first flag ul' the Coufederate 
States, and was raised by a s:i"i>'iddauf;hter of I'resident .loliii I'yler over 
the Capitol in Montgomery, Ahi., .March 4. 1861. 

Top Klas— 'I'he "Battle Flag" was designed by General Beauregard and 
adopted hy the Confederate Congress. 'VUo reason for the adoption of said 
■'I'>attle I'"lag" was that in tlie first battle of Manassas the "Stars and 
Bars" was, in the sniol<e of battle, several times mistaken for thi' "Stars 
and Stripes," and vice versa. This remained the "Battle Flag" until the 
close of the war. 

Flag on Kight— On May 1, 1863. the Confederate Congress adopted this 
(lag as the "National Flag" of the Confederate States. The tirst flag of 
this design was used by F'resident Davis (o enfold the body of (Jeneral 
Stonewall .Jackson, who died May 10. 1863. For this reason it was fre- 
ipiently known as the ".Tackson Flag." 

Flag on Left— On March 1. ISii.^. the Confederate Congress adopted this 
<iesign as the "National l'"lag" of the < "onfedi'rate States, for the reason 
that when the flag adopted .May 1, 1863. fell limp around the staff it looked 
like a flag of truce, the white only showing: therefore the red bar was put 
across the end so that it never could be mistaken for a flag of truce. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 5 

part of the white adult it wa€ more than friendship. 
I might add the feeling was reciprocated by the 
slaves. The children addressed the adult blacks as 
uncle and aunt, and treated them with as much re- 
spect as tlicy did their blood relatives. It was 
Uncle Reuben and Aunt Dinah. The adult whites 
also addressed the older colored people in the same 
way. With but few exceptions, the two races lived 
together in perfect harmony. If a slave-owner 
was cruel to his slaves, it was because he was a cruel 
man, and all who came in contact with him, both 
man and beast, suffered at his hands. Even his 
children did not escape. Such men are found 
everywhere. The old black mammy, with her head 
tied up in a white cloth, was loved, respected and 
honored by every inmate of the home, regardless 
of color. As an illustration the following may be 
of interest: 

John Randolph Tucker, one of Virginia's most 
gifted and learned sons, who represented his State 
in the U. S. Congress, always celebrated his birth- 
day. I remember to have attended one of these cele- 
brations. It was shortly after the close of the war. 
Mr. Tucker was then between forty-five and fifty 
years of age. He had grown children. Fun mak- 



1 6 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMAITOX. 

ing was one of his characteristics. On these annual 
occasions, it was his custom to dress himself in a 
long white gown and bring into the parlor his old 
black nurse, whom he called "mammy." She sat in 
her rocking-chair with her head tied up in the con- 
ventional snow-white cloth. Mr. Tucker, dressed 
up as a child in his nightgown, would toddle 
in and climb up into her lap, and she would lull 
him to sleep with an old-time nursery song, no 
doubt one of her own compositions. This could 
hardly have occurred had the skin of his nurse 
been white. 

When a daughter married and set up her own 
home, fortunate was she if she took with her the 
mammy. In many homes the slaves were present 
at family prayers. The kitchen and the cabin fur- 
nished the white children places of resort that were 
full of pleasure. 

This was the relation between white and colored 
in my part of Virginia as I remember it from a 
child. And tonight, as I write these lines, while 
the clock tolls off the hour of eleven, I cannot keep 
out of my mind the words of that little poem by 
Elizabeth Akers: 

"Backward, turn backward, oh Time, in thy flight, 
And make me a child again just for tonight!" 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 7 

How anyone could have desired to break up this 
happy relationship was beyond the conception of 
the child, and more or less incomprehensible to the 
adult. 

Somewhere between childhood and youth we 
children all learned that there was a class of people 
up North called Abolitionists, who were so mean 
that they sent secret agents through the country to 
persuade the colored people to leave their homes 
and go North, where they could be free; that 
these agents were disguised as peddlers or other- 
wise, and that they visited the cabins of the slaves 
during the late hours of the night, and went so far 
as to urge them to rise up in a body and declare 
their freedom, and if necessary to murder those 
who held them as slaves. This delusion, if it were 
a delusion, might have been dispelled had not John 
Brown and his men appeared upon the scene to give 
a practical demonstration of their real intent. The 
few men with him may have been the only follow- 
ing that he had, but the damage had been done. 
Virginia was fighting mad. What had been whis- 
pered about the abolitionists in secret was now pro- 
claimed from the housetops. John Brown was an 
abolitionist, and all abolitionists were John 



1 8 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Browns, so the youths, at least, reasoned. The 
words abolitionist and Yankee were for the most 
part synonymous terms; the former being hard to 
pronounce, the child usually employed the latter. 
Some of the young children did not know that a 
Yankee was a human being, as the following inci- 
dent will illustrate: 

When the first Federal soldiers entered the vil- 
lage of Middleburg, Loudoun county, Virginia, 
the cry went up and down the streets, "The Yankees 
have come!" The streets were soon deserted by 
every living thing except the dogs and the ubiqui- 
tous, irrepressible small boy, who was or pretended 
to be "skeered o' nothin'." This war was gotten up 
for his special benefit, and he was determined to 
see all that was to be seen, and was always to be 
found well up in front. The women and children 
within their homes crowded to the windows to see 
the cavalry as it marched by. A little three-year 
old nephew of mine, with the expression of alarm 
disappearing from his face, said: "Mamma, them 
ain't Yankees; them's soldiers." He had expected 
to see some kind of hideous animal. 

This is the education the Virginia boys got who 
afterward became Lee's soldiers. They were 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 9 

brought up in this school, and when they became 
soldiers, wearing the gray, they felt that they had 
something to fight for. They believed that they 
were real patriots, notwithstanding they were 
called rebels and traitors. 

This brings us to the beginning of the Civil War, 
or at least to the secession movement. Lincoln had 
not yet taken his seat as President when several of 
the Southern States seceded and formed the South- 
ern Confederacy, with Montgomery, Ala., as the 
capital and Jefferson Davis as President. This was 
recognized by the United States Government as 
open rebellion, and as soon as Mr. Lincoln took the 
reins of government he called for 75,000 troops to 
suppress the rebellion. 

Virginia must either furnish her quota of troops 
or withdraw from the Union. She promptly chose 
the latter, and shortly afterward became a part of 
the Southern Confederacy. As soon as the ordi- 
nance of secession had passed the Virginia Legisla- 
ture there were a thousand Paul Reveres in the sad- 
dle, carrying the news to every point not reached by 
telegraph lines. The young men and boys did not 
wait for the csU from the Governor. Military 
companies, infantry, cavalry and artillery sprang 



20 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

up everywhere. Anyone who chose and could get a 
sufficient following might raise a company. These 
companies were offered to the Governor and 
promptly accepted. The ordinance of secession 
was passed at night. The next morning Virginia 
troops were on their way to seize Harper's Ferry. 
On the approach of these troops the small guard 
of United States soldiers stationed there set fire to 
the buildings and fled. The fire was extinguished 
by the citizens, I think, and much of the valuable 
machinery and military stores was saved. The ma- 
chinery was sent to Richmond and the arms were 
used in equipping the soldiers. Harper's Ferry 
became one of the outposts of the Confederacy and 
a place of rendezvous for the rapidly-growing Con- 
federate battalions. Thomas Jonathan Jackson, 
afterward known as ''Stonewall" Jackson, was sent 
to Harper's Ferry to drill and organize the forces 
gathering there into an army. He was later super- 
seded by Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, but Jackson re- 
mained as a subordinate commander. In the mean- 
time, the Confederate Government had demanded 
that Major Anderson evacuate Fort Sumter, at the 
entrance of Charleston harbor, and also had said, 
if not in words in action, to the Government at 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 21 

Washington as It saw United States armies gather- 
ing near its northern frontier, "So far shalt thou 
come, and no farther." 

But to go back to the thirty boys. What were 
they doing all this time? Just prior to the date of 
Virginia's secession they were gathering in groups 
at noon and recess, on the way to and from school, 
and talking war. How big and important we 
seemed as we prospectively saw ourselves dressed 
as soldiers, armed and keeping step to the beat of 
the drum. There was but little studying, for our 
preceptor was not hard on us. He had once been 
a boy himself, and, appreciating the conditions that 
surrounded us, he chiefly employed himself in 
keeping the school together until hostilities began, 
if it should really come to that. I don't know how 
long the school continued, but I do know that these 
particular boys were early on the drill ground and 
were being trained into soldiers. It was difficult 
for parents to keep the fourteen and fifteen-year- 
old boys at home or In school. I had a brother six- 
teen years old; he was first of the family to en- 
list, and then all followed, one after another, until 
four of us were In the ranks. There were mature 
men and old men, men of heavy responsibilities, 



22 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

who saw farther into the future than the younger 
generation. These went about with bowed heads 
and talked seriously of what the future might bring. 
They wisely discussed constitutional law, State 
rights, what foreign nations would have to say 
about it — the nations that had to have our cotton. 
"Cotton was king," they said, and the South owned 
the king, soul and body. Questions like these were 
discussed among the men, but, like one of old, the 
boy cared for none of these things. In the language 
of a famous Union general, his place was to meet 
the enemy and defeat him. I remember about this 
time having heard this toast offered to the South : 

*'May her old men make her laws, her young 
men fight her battles, and her maidens spin her 
cotton." 

The boy well understood the part he was to play, 
and he was in his element, and as happy as a boy 
could be. I cannot remember just when the first 
call was made for troops by the Governor, but I do 
know, as I have already stated, that the boys heard 
the call from a higher source, and they were com- 
ing from mountain and plain, from hillside and 
valley, from the shop, the ofiice, the school. Well 
do I recall the joy that surged up in every boy's 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 23 

breast as the actors one after another took their 
places on the stage. Again I find myself quoting 
Elizabeth Akers, this time substituting a word: 

"Backward, turn backward, oh Time, in thy flight, 
And make me a BOY again just for tonight." 

Now let us take a peep into the Virginia homes. 
What were the women doing? Ah, they were as 
busy as bees. These boys must be equipped not only 
with munitions of war, but each must take with 
him as many home comforts as could possibly be 
compressed into a bundle small enough to be car- 
ried. When he was at home it took a good-sized 
room to hold these things ; now he must put them 
into his pocket or on his back, and it took all of a 
mother's skill to gather these things up into the 
least possible space, that her boy might have in the 
camp life all that a mother's love could give him. 
The Government would furnish the guns, the pow- 
der, the lead, the canteen and knapsack and haver- 
sack; the tinshop, the tincup; the shoemaker, the 
boots; the bookstore, the Bible (every boy must 
carry a Bible), but all the clothing, all the little 
necessary articles for comfort and health must be 
manufactured in the home. Did you ever open the 



24 TROU BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

outside casing of one of those large patent beehives 
and see the bees at work inside? What rushing and 
pushing and confusion ! Every bee, so far as human 
eye can see, seems busy. A Virginia home in the 
spring of 1861 w^asbutthe replica of such a beehive. 

While these things were going on in the home 
the boys were drilling in the field, for they were 
now out of school. All were anxious to get their 
equipment, and to be the first to offer their services 
to the Governor. 

Had these boys any conception of what they were 
rushing into? Suppose just at this time the cur- 
tain had been lifted, and they could have seen Bull 
Run and Seven Pines, Manassas and Sharpsburg, 
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Gettysburg 
and The Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor 
and Appomattox! And if they could have seen 
a picture of their homes and fields as they appeared 
in 1865, would they have rushed on? Perhaps I 
can answer that question by pointing to the battle- 
field of New Market. In the spring of 1864, after 
nearly all the great battles had been fought, the 
young cadets from Lexington, Va., who had not 
yet been under fire, but with a full knowledge of 
what war meant, rushed into this battle like veter- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 25 

ans and were mowed down as grain, their little 
bodies lying scattered over the field like sheaves of 
wheat. 

"O war, thou hast thy fierce delight, 
Thy gleams of joy intensely bright; 
Such gleams as from thy polished shield 
Fly dazzling o'er the battle-field." 

Yes, war has its bright, attractive side, and those 
boys, as I knew them, would have looked at these 
moving-pictures as they came one after another 
into view, and then perhaps have turned pale; per- 
haps they would have shuddered and then cried 
out, "On with the dance; let joy be unconfined." 
And it was literally on with the dance. School, as 
I have just said, was out, and every laddie had his 
lassie, and you may be sure they improved the time. 
It was drill through the day and dance through the 
night. 

"No sleep till morn when yonth and pleasure meet 
To chase the glowing hours with (lying feet." 

The boys were happy, and "all went merry as a 
marriage bell." And well that it was so. When we 
looked into the hive we saw that the bees were busy, 
but as far as human eye could discover there was no 
head; all was confusion; it was pushing and shov- 



26 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

ing and coming and going, and one might have 
asked the question, What are they doing? What 
does it all mean? If we could have seen farther 
into the hive w^e would have discovered that back 
of this busy throng sat the queen, and that these 
were her subjects doing her bidding. She was 
sending out her little rogues to rob the flowers, and 
they were coming back richly laden with spoils. 
This was the raw material, and it was being worked 
up. When the season was over and the flowers 
were dead, and we drew from the hive the finished 
product, so perfect in all its parts and richly stored 
with sweetened treasures, we began to realize that 
there was a master mind behind it all. Do you sup- 
pose for a moment that when these young men and 
boysof Virginia, in fact from allover theSouth,who 
were rushing with such intense enthusiasm into the 
Confederate ranks, the fathers and mothers and 
sisters who were equipping these youths with com- 
forts without which they could not have endured 
the hardships of the camp — do you suppose they 
were but following the dictates of a few maddened, 
fire-eating fanatics, and that the whole would end 
in debt, death and desolation? If you had lived in 
1861 you might have been excused for thinking so. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 27 

But what do you think of it today, as the finished 
product begins to unfold itself to our view? Do 
you not believe there was a master mind behind it 
all, a King, and that these boys were but part of 
His loyal subjects, doing His will? Suppose there 
had been no rush and no adequate army at Bull 
Run to meet McDowell and his forces as they came 
marching out from Washington with flying colors? 
Suppose the Confederates had been beaten at Bull 
Run and Richmond had fallen, and the war had 
ended then? What miserable creatures we poor 
devils of the South would have been! The world 
would have laughed at us. We would have lost 
all of our self-respect. A cycle of time could not 
have wiped out our self-contempt, and God miglit 
have said, "I cannot build up a great nation with 
material like this." The North would have had no 
Grand Army Veterans and no deeds of heroism 
with which to keep alive the fire of patriotism in 
the hearts of their children. Spain in 1898 might 
have successfully defied us, and China and Japan 
have roamed at will over our land. No; the war 
was a necessity. It was costly, but was worth all 
that it cost. It has made of us a very great nation. 
Now I shall go back and tell how it was done. I 



28 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

shall do so by narrating my own experience, and as 
my experience, with but slight variation, was the 
experience of every boy who served in the Confed- 
erate army, the reader will have a fair idea of what 
the boy's life was during those four years. 

The firing upon Fort Sumter was like throwing 
a stone into a hornet's nest. All the North was 
aroused. Troops came pouring into \yashington 
by every train. A Massachusetts regiment, in pass- 
ing through the streets of Baltimore, was mobbed, 
and the song '^Maryland, My Maryland," was 
wafted on the air. 

Maryland boys, under cover of night, were cross- 
ing the Potomac to help drive the invaders back. 
They came singing "The Despot's Heel Is on Thy 
Shore." Rumors flew thick and fast. Now and then 
shots were exchanged between opposing pickets as 
they walked to and fro on the banks of the Potomac 
river that separated them. In fact, the curtain was 
up and the play had begun. Harper's Ferry, Lees- 
burg and Manassas (see map*) became strategical 

♦In reading the book, spread out the map before >t>n and follow 
the movements of tlie armies. There is a map with each book. 
The main battlefields arc marked with a flag, but there are over 
50 more ; in fact, eliminating the rough motmtain ranges, nearly every 
foot of Virginia soil covered by this map felt the tramp of the soldier 
and heard the hiss of the bullet. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 29 

points, and at each of these the Confederates were 
concentrating their forces. 

By June i, 1861, Jos. E. Johnston at Harper's 
Ferry had an army of 12,000. Col. Eppa Hunton 
at Leesburg, a small force. Gen. P. G. T. Beaure- 
gard at Manassas, 12,000. These were Confeder- 
ates. On the Union side, Gen. Patterson had an 
army of about 15,000 confronting Johnston, and 
McDowell, at the head of 35,000, was crossing the 
Potomac at Washington en route for Bull Run. 



Chapter II. 

From Bull Run to Seven Pines. 

"Only a boy ! and his father had said 
He never could let his youngest go; 
Two already were lying dead 
Under the feet of the trampling foe." 

As the advance guard of the Federal army en- 
tered Alexandria, Va., on the south side of the Po- 
tomac, a Confederate flag was seen floating from 
the roof of a hotel kept by one Jackson. Col. E. E. 
Ellsworth, commanding the advance force, hauled 
it down. Jackson shot him dead, and was in turn 
killed by Ellsworth's orderly. This, I believe, was 
the first blood shed on Virginia soil. 

As McDowell moved his army toward Manassas, 
Johnston fell back toward Winchester, so as to be 
in a position to reinforce Beauregard if it became 
necessary. 

Jackson's brigade of Johnston's army left the 
valley July i8 for Manassas, other brigades fol- 
lowing in rapid succession. So closely did John- 
ston conceal his movements that Patterson was not 
aware that Johnston had left his front until it was 




Prcsidont of th(^ ("oiifci 



JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

Icrate States of America, taken just before Ills 
inauguration. 



Tlie graves of the dead witli the myrtle overgrown 
May yet form the footstool of liberty's throne. 
And each single wreck in the war-path of might 
Shall yet be a rock in the temjile of right. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 3 1 

too late to follow him. The little army at Leesburg 
also marched rapidly to Manassas. 

These united Confederate armies numbered 
about 27,000 men. McDowell's army, as I have 
stated, numbered 35,000. 

In order to be prepared for an emergency, the 
Governor of Virginia had called the militia from 
the counties adjacent to Manassas to assemble at 
that place. That included my county. I joined the 
militia and marched to Manassas, arriving there a 
few days before the battle. 

There was skirmishing for some days between 
the advanced forces of the two armies, but the real 
battle was fought on Sunday, July 21, 1861. 

My command took no part in this battle, but it 
was in line of battle in the rear of the fighting 
forces, ready to take part if its services were needed. 

Soldiers, like sailors, are superstitious. As the 
hour for the battle drew near, those of a mystical 
turn of mind saw, or thought they saw, a strange 
combination of stars in the heavens. Some said, 
"I never saw the moon look that way before." 
Clouds assumed mysterious shapes. Some saw in 
them marching armies, and other fearful phenom- 
ena. A strange dog was seen one night passing in 



32 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

and out the various camps into the officers' tents 
and out again as if he were numbering the men. 
This created no little comment. The dog was all 
unconscious of the excitement he was creating. He 
had simply lost his master, but his manner appeared 
ominous to those who were looking for the mystical. 
These are the kind of soldiers that run at the first 
fire. They are found in all armies. 

I have always claimed that I am not superstitious, 
but I must admit that there is an atmosphere that 
hangs around the camp on the eve of an approach- 
ing battle that is well calculated to give one's imagi- 
nation full play. The doctors examining their 
medical chests, packages of white bandages and lint 
arriving, the movement of the ambulances, the un- 
usual number of litters that come into view, the 
chaplains a little more fervent in their prayers, offi- 
cers, from the commanding general down to the 
lowest rank, more reserved and less approachable. 
Even the horses seem to be restive, or we imagine 
them to be so. In fact, everything takes on a dif- 
ferent attitude. The very air appears to be laden 
with an indescribable something that makes every 
individual soldier feel himself lifted up into a posi- 
tion of responsibility quite different from the place 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 33 

he occupied when loitering around the camp, with 
the enemy far away from the front. 

This was the state of things as I saw them in and 
around Manassas on the eve of the first battle of 
Bull Run. Before the rising of the sun on 
that beautiful Sabbath Day, July 21, 1861, the 
cannon could be heard in the distance, which told 
us that the two combatants had locked horns. All 
day long we could hear the booming of the guns 
and see the smoke of the battle over the tops of the 
low pines in our front, and I was ever so anxious to 
get closer and see the real thing, but soldiers cannot 
go just where they may desire, especially when a 
great battle is in progress. 

Early in the day I saw what thrilled me no lit- 
tle. It was the first blood I had ever seen shed on a 
battlefield. Coming across the field, moving quite 
slowly, was a man leading a horse. As they ap- 
proached I noticed that the horse was limping and 
that the man was a soldier. The horse was badly 
wounded and bleeding, and seemed to be in great 
pain. Whenever the man would stop the horse 
would attempt to lie down. I wanted to go to him 
and put my arms around his neck and tell him he 
was a hero. The man and the horse passed on; 



34 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

there was too much going on to allow a single 
wounded horse to absorb all of one's attention. 

Toward the afternoon news came in from the 
front that our army was beaten and was in full 

retreat. 

Every available man was called from the camp, 
and a second line of defense was formed, behind 
which the retreating army could rally and make 
another stand. It was then that I began to realize 
what war was. 

About five o'clock a soldier came across the field 
from the front with a gun on his shoulder. As he 
came up to our line someone asked him how the bat- 
tle was going. He replied, ''We've got them on the 
trot." Then there was wild cheering. The soldier 
was right; McDowell's army was beaten and in 
full retreat toward Washington. It proved to be 
the worst rout that any army suffered during the 

Civil War. 

At one stage of the battle it had looked very doubt- 
ful for our side. Beauregard, believing that he 
was beaten, had ordered his forces to fall back, call- 
ing on Johnston to cover his retreat. But the arrival 
of Elzey's brigade of Johnston's army upon the 
field just at this psychological moment turned the 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 35 

battle in our favor. A member of the First Mary- 
land Regiment, forming a part of this brigade, has 
given me a graphic description of how^ the brigade 
w^as hurried from the railroad station at Manassas, 
across the fields for five miles under the hot July- 
sun, the men almost famished for water and cov- 
ered with dust, most of the distance at double-quick, 
toward the firing line, from which the panic- 
stricken Confederates were fleeing in great dis- 
order. But I shall only narrate what I saw myself, 
and will not quote farther, however interesting it 
may be. A train came down from Richmond about 
three o'clock, bringing the President of the Con- 
federacy, Jefferson Davis, and fresh troops, but 
they arrived too late to be of any special service. 
I saw the President as he mounted a gray horse, 
with a number of other prominent Confederates 
from Richmond, and moved oflf toward the battle- 
field. 

A short time after this they began to bring in the 
wounded from the front. I stood by and saw the 
pale face and glassy eyes of Gen. Bee as they took 
him dying from the ambulance and carried him into 
a house near the Junction. It was he who an hour 
or so before had said to his retreating troops, "Look 



36 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

at Jackson ; he stands like a stone wall I" That night 
Gen. Bee died, and Jackson was ever known after- 
ward as "Stonewall" Jackson. 

Yes, the Union army was beaten, and their re- 
treat developed into a disastrous rout, although they 
were not pursued by the Confederates. 

While there was great rejoicing all over the 
South on account of this splendid victory gained by 
our raw recruits, there was no noisy demonstration. 
Crowds thronged the streets, but no bonfires lit up 
the darkness of the night. No cannon thundered 
out salutes. The church steeples were silent, ex- 
cept when in solemn tone they called the people to 
prayer. 

The next day the Confederate Congress met and 
passed the following resolution: 

"We recognize the hand of the most high God, 
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, in the glo- 
rious victory with which he has crowned our armies 
at Manassas, and that the people of these Confed- 
erate States are invited by appropriate services on 
the ensuing Sabbath to offer up their united thanks- 
giving and prayers for this mighty deliverance." 

The losses in men were as follows : Union army, 
3000; Confederates, 2000. The latter captured 27 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 37 

cannon, 1500 prisoners, an immense quantity of 
small arms, ammunition and stores. 

I promptly laid aside my flint-lock musket and 
took a Springfield rifle. 

I am often amused aS I remember some of the 
thoughts that passed through my mind, and some 
of the things I did on this momentous occasion. For 
instance, we were ordered to "sleep on our arms" 
the night whose dawn was to usher in the battle. 
I had heard a good deal about soldiers obeying 
orders. I thought of "the boy who stood on the 
burning deck," so when I lay down that night with 
old Mother Earth for a bed, I found myself stretch- 
ed out at full length on top of my musket. It was a 
little rough, but the mere thought of being a soldier 
and "sleeping on my arms" on the eve of battle 
made my bed feel as soft as a bed of roses. And 
then the gun! It was an old flint-lock musket, 
minus the flint, and no powder or ball. But I was 
at least a soldier and had a gun, and would surely 
see the battle and could write home all about it. A 
soldier seldom ever thinks that he will be among 
the slain; he may be wounded, or taken prisoner, 
but it is always the other fellow that is going to be 
killed. 



Chapter III. 

From Bull Run to Seven Pines ( Continued) . 

"You have called us and we're coming, by Richmond's bloody tide 
To lay us down, for freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside." 

The several battles around Richmond in the 
spring of 1862, viz., Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, 
Beaver Dam, Malvern Hill, Gaines' Mill, I have 
grouped under the head of Seven Pines. 

The fall and winter months following the battle 
of Bull Run were spent for the most part by both 
sides in recruiting their armies and getting ready 
for a desperate struggle, which would inevitably 
come when spring arrived the following year. 

Johnston's armya fewdays after the battle had in- 
creased to 40,000. He moved forward and .occu- 
pied a position near Centerville, and there he win- 
tered. Jackson, however, was detached and sent 
back to Winchester to guard the valley, and became 
commander-in-chief in that section. The forces 
that came down from Leesburg returned to their 
old position. 

There were occasional raids and skirmishes, but 

St 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 39 

no decisive battles were fought until the following 
spring, except the battle of Ball's Bluff, near Lees- 
burg, in which battle the Eighth Virginia played a 
conspicuous part. One of my brothers was in this 
battle, and several of my schoolmates were killed 
and wounded. 

During the winter the soldiers were granted fre- 
quent furloughs, the militia was disbanded, and I 
went back home. 

But when the birds began heralding the coming 
of spring there was a call from the Confederate 
Government not only for the return of all enlisted 
men to their commands, but for every able-bodied 
white male citizen between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five to enlist. 

I started out from Middleburg with Edwin 
Bailey and several Marylanders, the latter having 
crossed the Potomac for the purpose of joining the 
Confederate army. Bailey was already a member 
of the Eighth Virginia Infantry, and was at home 
on furlough. 

My destination was the Sixth Virginia Cavalry, 
which was then with "Stonewall" Jackson in the 
Valley of Virginia. This regiment was in Robert- 
son's brigade, Fitzhugh Lee's division, the whole 



40 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

cavalry force of the army of Northern Virginia 
being commanded by Gen. J. E. B. Stuart. I was 
on horseback; the others on foot. 

The Government at Washington had called for 
half a million men; the Government at Richmond 
had called for every able-bodied son from eighteen 
to forty-five, and they were coming. From hamlet 
and villa, from the lordly mansion and mountain 
shack, from across the Potomac, the boys and young 
men of the South were coming in answer to the call. 
It reminded me of the Resurrection morn, except 
the trooping thousands were coming from the top 
of the ground and not from under it. 

The nearest point at which I could reach the 
Confederate line was Harrisonburg, Va. All the 
district between my home and Harrisonburg and 
the line stretching from there south to the James 
river and north into West Virginia had been aban- 
doned to the enemy. Hence, it was necessary for 
us to move with great caution, to avoid being inter- 
cepted by the bluecoats. The little caravan moved 
up the pike that runs from Alexandria across the 
Blue Ridge into the valley by the way of Upper- 
ville and Paris. When we reached the mountain 
at Paris we moved along its foot, traveling mostly 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 4 1 

by night and resting by day, hiding ourselves in the 
heavy timber that stretched along the slopes of the 
mountain. We had no trouble procuring food 
from the little farm houses that we passed. Occa- 
sionally we employed a guide, whom we paid. 
These guides took great pains to magnify the dan- 
ger that surrounded us and told us of the narrow 
escapes of other caravans that had preceded us. 
This was done in order to draw as large a fee from 
us as possible. The distance to Harrisonburg 
was about 100 miles. We finally reached our des- 
tination. 

During the winter and early spring the North 
had raised a very large army, splendidly equipped, 
and placed it under the command of Gen. George 
B. McClellan. This army was taken mostly by boat 
to Yorktown, whence it took up a line of march 
toward Richmond. McClellan's army was the 
largest and best equipped that had ever trod Ameri- 
can soil. 

McClellan was the idol of the North, and there 
was very little doubt in the minds of the Northern 
people that when he met the Confederate forces de- 
fending Richmond the Capital of the Confed- 



42 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

cracy would be captured and the army defending 
it destroyed or forced to surrender. 

The Confederate forces gradually fell back be- 
fore McClellan's army as it advanced up the 
Peninsula, until the invaders could see the spires 
of the Confederate Capitol. 

McClellan's march was along a thorny path. 
Johnston had withdrawn his army from Center- 
ville, and was in McClellan's front contesting every 
foot of ground. There were several battles fought, 
conspicuous among them the Battle of Seven Pines, 
where Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was severely 
wounded, and was not able for some months to re- 
turn to active service. It was then that Gen. Robt. 
E. Lee took command of the army of Northern 
Virginia. Immediately upon assuming command, 
Gen. Lee conferred with Jackson, who was still in 
the valley, and arranged with him for a joint attack 
upon the Union army in front of Richmond. 

Jackson had won imperishable honors in the val- 
ley, having so paralyzed three armies that had been 
sent out to accomplish his destruction that he was 
able to slip unobserved away from their front with 
almost his entire army. He crossed the Blue Ridge 
and marched rapidly to Richmond. Reaching 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 43 

Ashland, he halted for the night, and, mounting a 
fresh horse and taking with him two of his trusted 
officers, he rode through the darkness to Richmond, 
where he held a conference with Gen. Lee and Jef- 
ferson Davis. Returning, he rejoined his army and 
marched toward McClellan's right flank and rear. 
McClellan was all unconscious of Jackson's ap- 
proach. Hearing the booming of Jackson's guns, 
McClellan inquired what it meant. "It is Jack- 
son," said a courier. "Impossible," said McClellan. 
When McClellan fully realized that it was Jack- 
son's army from the valley that "was goring his 
side like the horns of an angry bull," it is said that 
the scene at his headquarters was intensely dra- 
matic. From information received from Washing- 
ton, McClellan had every reason to believe that 
Jackson and his entire army were either prisoners 
or cooped up somewhere in the valley north of 
Harrisonburg, but as the sound of Jackson's guns 
grew louder and nearer, and couriers with panting 
steeds came dashing in confirming the truth, he was 
forced to believe that the noise was Jackson's "can- 
non's opening roar." "Then there was hurrying 
to and fro and mounting in hot haste." Never did 
human brain work quicker than did McClellan's 



44 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

when he realized his position. Who but a Napo- 
leon could provide so quickly for such an emer- 
gency? The masterly manner in which McClellan 
changed his base and saved his army, with three 
such strategists as Jackson, Lee and Johnston to 
reckon with, showed military skill of the highest 
order. 

Someone in conversation with Gen. Lee after the 
war asked who was the greatest soldier on the side 
of the North. Lee replied, "McClellan, by all 
odds." The fact is, the Government at Washington 
never gave McClellan a fair chance. Gen. Lee 
came to Richmond from West Virginia, where his 
campaign had been a failure, and was elevated at 
once to the most important post in the Confederate 
army, while McClellan was humiliated by being 
relieved of his command just at a time when he was 
prepared by experience to put into use his great 
talent. History is bound to record him a place 
among the famous generals. 

The battle lasted seven full days. The Confed- 
erate victory was complete. Millions of dollars' 
worth of supplies were captured or destroyed, and 
McClellan was compelled to beat a hasty retreat 
to Washington to defend the city. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 45 

The spoils of this battle that fell into the hands 
of the Confederates were 10,000 prisoners, 35,000 
rifles, 55 cannon, ammunition, provision stores of 
every kind, almost beyond computation. The losses 
of the two armies in killed and wounded were 
nearly equal — about 10,000 each. 

Some idea can be formed of the captured stores 
when it is remembered that to provide for an army 
such as McClellan's, 600 tons of ammunition, food, 
forage and medical supplies had to be for\varded 
from Washington every day. If he kept a thirty 
days' supply on hand, we have the enormous sum of 
18,000 tons that either fell into the hands of the 
Confederates or was destroyed. 

When I reached Harrisonburg I found the Sixth 
Virginia Cavalry had left the valley with Jackson's 
army. I followed as rapidly as possible, and met 
the regiment at Gordonsville, with Jackson's army, 
coming back from the battle and hurrying on to- 
ward Manassas to attack Pope, who had gathered 
an army there to protect Washington while Mc- 
Clellan was besieging Richmond. I joined Com- 
pany A of the Sixth Virginia Cavalry and felt that 
I was a full-fledged cavalryman and was ready to 
take part in anything that the regiment was called 
upon to do. 



Chapter IV. 

From Seven Pines to Antietam 

"On that pleasant morn of early fall, 

When Lee marched over the mountain wall." 

"Over the mountains, winding down, 
Horse and foot into Frederick town." 

A part of Pope's army, under Banks, had been 
pushed forward as far as Cedar Run, about half 
way between Manassas and Gordonsville. Jackson 
met this force and scattered it like chaff. This was 
known as the battle of Cedar Run. Jackson retired 
to Gordonsville. After resting there four days he 
began his famous march to Manassas. He did not 
move in a straight line, but made a detour to the 
left, and by rapid marches placed his army in the 
rear of Pope at Manassas. 

One day the army covered forty miles. Riding 
along the dusty highway, Jackson noticed a sore- 
foot, barefoot infantryman, limping along, trying 
to keep upwith his command. Cominguptohim,he 
dismounted and told the soldier to mount his horse, 
while he trudged along by his side. The next day 
the same soldier was found among the dead, with 
his face turned up to the sun, having given his life 




KOUDUT lh)\VAKI> IIOTKINS. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 47 

for the man who gave him a lift. It was this lift 
that had cost him his life ; but for it, he would have 
been among the stragglers, too late for the battle. 

My command, during the march, got in frequent 
touch with the enemy, and at one point, namely, 
Catlctts Station, on the Orange and Alexandria 
Railroad, came very near capturing Gen. Pope 
himself. We got into his camp at night and into 
his tent, and took his boots and spurs, and papers 
that gave Jackson some valuable information. 

As soon as Gen. Lee was satisfied that McClellan 
was well on his way toward Washington, he put 
his whole army in motion and moved rapidly to 
join Jackson, who would sorely need him in his 
attack upon Pope at Manassas ; in fact, Jackson had 
halted after the battle of Cedar Run for a day or 
two to allow Gen. Lee to come up. 

An event occurred during this battle around 
Richmond that brought sorrow to my home. My 
brother Howard was slightly wounded in the arm, 
taken to the hospital at Richmond, and died in a 
few days of a malignant fever, and was buried some- 
where among the unknown dead around Richmond. 
The family made several attempts to locate his 
grave, but were unsuccessful. 



48 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOALATTaX. 

"On fame's eternal camping ground, 

His silent tent is spread ; 
While glory guards with solemn round 

The bivouac of the dead." 

His picture on the opposite page is from an old 
daguerreotype, taken just before entering the Con- 
federate service. 

The move of Jackson to the rear of Pope at 
Manassas enabled him to capture many carloads 
of supplies and munitions of war, greatly assisting 
the armies of Lee and Jackson in their undertaking. 
A goodly portion of McClellan's army had cm- 
barked at Occoquan and marched across to the as- 
sistance of Pope. Notwithstanding this fact, the 
combined armies of Lee and Jackson were more 
than a match for Pope, and he was defeated and 
his army routed, leaving over 9000 of his dead and 
wounded on the field. His entire loss, as given by 
the "New Standard Encyclopedia," including pris- 
oners, was 20,000, while the Confederates', by the 
same authority, is placed at 12,000. 

There fell into the hands of the Confederates 
7000 prisoners, 30 cannon, 20,000 rifles. The cap- 
tured stores, including two miles of loaded cars on 



FROM BULL RUN TO APrOMATTOX. 49 

the track, were enormous, much of which the Con- 
federates had to burn. 

This is called the Second Battle of Manassas to 
distinguish it from the first battle fought on the 
same ground, and called by the North the Battle 
of Bull Run, but by the South the First Battle of 
Manassas. 

Pope lost no time in getting behind his intrcnch- 
ments at Washington. My command took part in 
the battle, and made a charge just as the sun was 
dropping behind the horizon. Lee did not follow 
Pope toward Washington, but moved in a straight 
line toward the Upper Potomac, leaving Washing- 
ton to his right. 

At this time my company was detached from the 
Sixth Regiment and made a bodyguard to Gen. 
Lee. We kept close to his person both night and 
day. 

Part of the time Gen. Lee rode in an ambulance, 
with both hands bandaged, his horse, "Traveler," 
having fallen over a log, crippling Lee's hands. 
This gave me a good opportunity of seeing the 
great soldier at close range. 

I remember an incident which happened one 
afternoon, toward sunset, after the army had gone 



50 FROM BULL RUN TO APPONL-MTOX. 

into camp for the night. Gen. Lee's headquarteri 
was established in a little farmhouse near Chan- 
tilly, I think, in Loudoun county. The General 
went out with one of his stall officers for a walk into 
an apple orchard. They were gone perhaps an 
hour. In the meantime a fruard had been set 

o 

around the cottage with instructions to let none pass 
without an order from Gen. Lee. 

When Gen. Lee returned with his aid by his 
side, he was halted by Frank Peak (a member of 
my company, now living in Alexandria, Va.). 
Peak said to them, "My instructions are to let none 
pass without an order from Gen. Lee." Gen. Lee 
turned to his aid and said, "Stop; the sentinel has 
halted us. The officer (I think it was Col. Mar- 
shall, who afterward lived in Baltimore, and died 
there not long ago) stepped forward and said, 
"This is Gen. Lee himself, who gives all orders." 
Peak saluted them, and they passed on. 

Before day the next morning the army was in 
motion toward Maryland, Gen. Lee still riding in 
the ambulance, very much, no doubt, to the chagrin 
of "Traveler," who was led by a soldier just behind 
the ambulance. 

Owing to the hard-fought battles around Rich- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 51 

mond, Cedar Run and Manassas (which followed 
each other in rapid succession), and the long, weary 
marches through the hot July days,often far into the 
night, many of Lee's soldiers, who were foot-sore 
and broken down, straggled from the ranks, being 
unable to keep up with the stronger men. So great 
was the number that it was said that half his army 
were straggling along the roads and through the 
fields, subsisting as they could on fruits and berries, 
and whatever food they could get from farm- 
houses. 

As the army crossed the Potomac (four miles 
east of Leesburg) Gen. Lee had to make some pro- 
vision for tlie stragglers. It would not do to let 
them follow the army into the enemy's country, be- 
cause they would all be captured. He concluded 
to abandon his bodyguard and leave it at the river, 
with instructions to turn the stragglers and tell 
them to move toward Winchester, beyond the Shen- 
andoah. This was the point, no doubt, that Gen. 
Lee had fixed upon as the place to which he would 
bring his army when his Maryland campaign was 
over. 

It was with much regret that we had to give up 
our post of honor as guard to the head of the army 



52 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

to take charge of sore-footed stragglers. But a sol- 
dier's duty is to obey orders. 

The army crossed the river into Maryland, and 
we were kept busy for a week sending the stragglers 
toward Winchester. 

Some bore wounds received in the battles men- 
tioned, and their bandages in many cases still show- 
ed the dried blood as evidence that they had not al- 
ways been stragglers. Some were sick, and some too 
lame to walk, so it became necessary for us to go 
out among the farmers and procure wagons to haul 
the disabled. In doing so it was my duty to call on 
an old Quaker family by the name of Janney, near 
Goose Creek Mceting-House, Loudoun county, 
and get his four-horse wagon and order it to Lees- 
burg. This I did in good soldier style, not appre- 
ciating the old adage that "Chickens come home to 
roost." 

After seeing the wagon on the road, accompanied 
by Friend Janney, who rode on horseback (the 
wagon being driven by his hired man), I went to 
other farms, doing the same thing. Thus the 
lame, sick and sore-footed and the rag-and-tag were 
pushed on, shoved on and hauled on toward Win- 
chester. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 53 

Some years after this I had occasion to visit the 
same spot, in company with a young lady. 

It was the Friends' quarterly meeting time at 
Goose Creek. We attended the services, and, of 
course, were invited out to dinner. It fell to our 
lot to dine at the home of Friend Janney, from 
whom I had taken the wagon. I did not recognize 
the house or the family until I was painfully re- 
minded of it in the following manner: 

We were seated at a long table in the dining- 
room (I think there were at least twenty at the 
table), and several young ladies were acting as 
waitresses. I was quite bashful in those days, but 
was getting along very nicely, until one of the 
young waitresses, perhaps with no intention of em- 
barrassing me, focusing her mild blue eyes upon 
mine, said, "I think I recognize thee as one of the 
soldiers who took our wagon and team for the use 
of Lee's army, en route for Maryland." I did not 
look up, but felt that twice twenty eyes were cen- 
tered on me. I cannot recall what I said, but I am 
sure I pleaded guilty; besides, I felt that all the 
blood in my body had gone to my face, and that 
every drop was crying out, "Yes, he's the very fel- 



54 FROM BULL RUN TO AFrO^L'\TTOX. 

low." It Spoiled my dinner, but they all seemed to 
think it was a good joke on me. 

Quakers, it must be remembered, were not as a 
rule in sympathy with the secession movement, 
which greatly intensified the discomfort of my posi- 
tion. My companion, however, although a mem- 
ber of that society, never deserted me, and some 
time afterward became more to me than a friend; 
she has been faithful ever since, and is now sitting 
by me as I write these lines. 

Now I must go back to war scenes. 

I cannot remember, of course, just the day, but 
while we were busy gathering up these stragglers 
we could distinctly hear the booming of the guns 
that told us the two armies had met and that there 
was heavy fighting on Maryland soil. 

The first sounds came from toward Harper's 
Ferry, and we soon afterward learned the result. 

Jackson had been detached from the main army, 
had surrounded and captured Harper's Ferry, tak- 
ing 13,000 prisoners and many army supplies. 
Among the prisoners was A. W. Green of New 
York, who afterward became pastor of my church, 
St. John's, corner Madison avenue and Laurens 
street, Baltimore. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 55 

Mr. Green says that wlicn the prisoners were all 
lined up, Jackson rode along their front and tried 
to comfort llicm as best he could. He said, "Men, 
this is the fate of war; it is you today, it may be we 
tomorrow." After paroling his prisoners, Jackson 
hurried to rejoin Lee, who was being hotly pressed 
by McClcllan at Antietam. Lee's united forces 
at this time could not have numbered over 40,000 
men, while McClcllan, who was still in command 
of the Union army, had a force of over 100,000. 

McClcllan made the attack, was repulsed with 
terrible loss, but the North claimed the victory, be- 
cause Lee retired during the second night after the 
battle and recrossed the Potomac, falling back to 
Winchester, where he was reinforced by the strag- 
glers who had been gathering there for two weeks 
or more. 

This series of battles, beginning with Richmond 
in the spring and ending at Antietam in the early 
fall, had so exhausted the armies that both sides 
were glad to take a rest. They had been marching 
and fighting from early spring all through the 
summer, and were thoroughly exhausted. 
lee's army in a TRy\P. 

We have all heard of the famous lost dispatch 
that was picked up in the streets of Frederick, Md., 



56 



FROM BULL RUN TO APrO^L\^TOX. 



after the place had been evacuated by the Confed- 
erates. It was called "Special Order No. 191." A 
copy of this order was sent by Gen. Lee to each of 
his generals. One copy intended for Gen. D. H. 
Hill was dropped by a staff officer and fell into the 
hands of Gen. McClellan. This telltale slip of pa- 
per that might have ended the war was found 
wrapped around two cigars. It read as follows: 

"Headquarters Army of Northern \'irginia, near Frederick, Md. 

"September 9, iS6.j. 
"Special Order No. 191. 

"Tlie army will resume its march tomorrow, taking the TTapers- 
town road. Goncral Jackson's command will form the advance, and, 
after passing Middletown, with such portion as he may select, take 
the route toward Sharpsburg, cross the Potomac at the most con- 
venient point, and, by Friday night, take possession of the Baltimore 
& Ohio Railroad, capture such of the enemy as may be at Martins- 
burg, and intercept such as may attempt to escape from Harper's 
Ferry. 

"General Longstreet's command will pursue the same road as far 
as Boonsborough, where it will halt with the reserve, supply and 
baggage trains of the army. 

"General Mcl.aws, \\ith his own division and that of General R. 
n. Anderson, will follow General Longstreet. On reaching Miildle- 
town he will take the route to Harper's Ferry, and by Friday morn- 
ing possess himself of the Maryland Heights and endeavor to cap- 
ture the enemy at Harper's Ferry and vicinity. 

"General Walker, with his division, after accomplishing the ob- 
ject in which he is now engaged, will cross the Potomac at Cheek's 
Ford, ascend its right bank to Lovottsville, take possession of Lou- 
doun Heights, if practicable, by Friday morning. Key's Ford on his 
left, and the road between the end of the mountain and the Potomac 
on his right. He will, as far as practicable, co-operate with General 
McLaws and General Jackson in intercepting the retreat of the 
enemy 

"General D. H. Hill's division will form the rear guard of the 
army, pursuing the road taken by the main body. The reserve ar- 
tillery, ordnance, supply-trains, etc., will precede General Hill. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APFOMATTOX. 57 

"General Stiinrt will ciclach a squadrf)!! of cavalry to accompany 
the commands of Generals LonKStreet, Jackson and McLavvs, and 
will) the main hody of the cavalry will cover the route of tiic army 
and hrin^j up all straKRlers that may have hccn left behind. 

"The commands of Generals Jackson, McLaws and Walker, after 
accomi)lishin)^ the ohjccls for which they have been detached, will 
join the main hrxly of the army at I'oonshoronpji or Ilaf^erstovvn. 

"I'.ach rej'.iment on the march will hahitually carry its axes in 
the regimental ordnance wayons for use of the men at their encamp- 
ments to procure wood, etc. 

"By command of Generai, R. E. Lee." 

Witli this document in liis hands and with Lee's 
army divided as it was, McClellan felt that his hour 
of triumph liad come. He sent the following dis- 
patch to President Lincoln: 

* * * "I have all the plans of the rebels, and 
will catch them in their own trap. * * * Gen- 
eral Lee's order to his army accidentally came into 
my hands this evening, and discloses his plan of 
campaign." 

The destruction of Lee's army at this time would 
certainly have ended hostilities. Gen. Longstreet 
was opposed to the movement against Harper's 
Ferry. He said it was fraught with too much dan- 
ger. 1 1 was rendered much more so when McClel- 
lan came into possession of Lee's plans. But Lee 
was too good a soldier not to be prepared for such 
an emergency. McClellan was repulsed; Lee re- 
crossed the river unmolested, paroled his Harper's 
Ferry prisoners, secured 73 cannon, 13,000 rifles, 
several hundred wagons and quantities of stores. 



Chapter V. 

From Antietam to CJiancellorsville. 

"Two armies covered hill and plain, 

Where Rappahannock's waters 
Ran deeply crimsoned with the stain 

Of battle's recent slaughters." 

After resting a while at Winchester Lee's army 
began its march leisurely back toward Richmond, 
and took up a position near Fredericksburg, a point 
about half way between Washington and Rich- 
mond. 

McClellan was relieved of his command, and 
Gen. Burnside took his place and gathered a large 
army in front of Fredericksburg on the Rappahan- 
nock river. 

About the middle of December Burnside crossed 
the river at Fredericksburg by means of pontoon 
bridges and attacked Lee and Jackson just outside 
of the town of Fredericksburg. 

A severe battle was fought, and Burnside was de- 
feated with terrible loss. He recrossed the river 
and wept when he contemplated the awful slaugh- 
ter that had been made in his army. This ended 

N 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 59 

the campaign of 1862. It is said that more soldiers 
fell in this battle in four hours than were killed in 
the entire Boer War. The historian has placed 
Burnside's losses at 12,31 1 ; Lee's at 5409. 

Both armies went into winter quarters, and there 
was no general battle until the next spring, but fre- 
quent skirmishes between bodies of cavalry on both 
sides as they marched to and fro protecting their 
respective encampments. 

From Harper's Ferry to Staunton, Va., stretches 
a part of the Blue Ridge mountains that played a 
conspicuous part in the war. 

The mountain is impassable for armies except 
through the gaps that occur every twenty or thirty 
miles. These gaps were always closely guarded by 
the Confederates, and through them the armies 
frequently marched and counter-marched as occa- 
sion required. 

If Jackson needed reinforcements in the valley, 
they were sent to him through one of these gaps; 
and on the other hand, if the armies defending 
Richmond needed reinforcements, it was Jackson's 
custom to give the enemy a stinging blow and send 
him in full retreat down the valley toward Wash- 
ington, then cross through one of these gaps with 



6o FROM BULL RL'X TO APPOMATTOX. 

a portion of his army and reinforce the armies de- 
fending Richmond. 

When the armies fell back from ^^'inchestcr mv 
company of cavalry was left to guard tlie Rlue- 
mount gap. then called Snickersville. A little later 
the gap was abandoned, and wo were ordered to 
Ashby's gap, farther up the valley, wliere we en- 
camped near the little town of Paris, at the foot 
of the mountain, and put out our pickets on the east 
side of the mountain below Upperville on the pike 
that leads through Middleburg and on to Alexan- 
dria, Va., just under the shadow of the capital of 
the Northern nation, I will call it. 

One day our pickets reported "the enemy's cav- 
alry advancing up the pike toward Upperville." 
Our captain (Bruce Gibson) ordered the bugle 
sounded, and 90 to 100 men were soon in the saddle 
and on the march to meet the enemy. 

It was four miles to Upperville, and as we ap- 
proached the town we could distinctly see the 
enemv's cavalry tilling the streets. 

We halted at a point just opposite the home of 
our captain (where the family were on the porch 
watching the movements of both sides). Many of 
the men of the company lived in that neighborhood. 



FROM DULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 6 1 

It was only eight miles from my home, hence this 
was no place to show the "white feather." 

I was riding a fiery young mare. She was never 
satisfied unless she was a little ahead. She had a 
jaw that no hit could hold. 

The captain ordered us to move fonvard, and as 
we approached the town, four abreast, our speed 
was increased to a trot, then to a gallop. 

To the best of my recollection my position was 
about the middle of the command, but in spite of 
my tugging at the bit, my young steed carried mc 
up to the front, and when we got close enough to 
the enemy to see the whites of tlicir eyes, I v/as a 
little closer to them than I wanted to be, and I'll 
frankly confess it wasn't bravery that put me there. 
We were close enough to discover that we were 
running into a whole regiment of Union cavalry, 
and if we had continued, it would have meant an- 
nihilation. 

The captain ordered right about, retreat! At 
this point to get those loo horses turned around in 
that street and get out of the reach of looo guns in 
the hands of looo Bluecoats, was a knotty problem. 
If the enemy had charged us just at this time, our 
destruction would have been just as complete as 



62 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

it would have been if we had gone ahead; but they 
hesitated. Perhaps they were afraid of running 
into a trap. 

I ran my horse up against a pump, and finally 
got turned around, and was soon leaving my com- 
rades behind me, for she was fleet of foot. But all 
at once I felt my steed going down under me. I 
thought that she was shot, but did not have much 
time to think about it, for I was soon for a few 
minutes unconscious. My horse had tripped and 
fallen, and, of course, I could not keep the saddle, 
going at a speed like that. The horse just behind 
leaped over me, horse and all (so the rider after- 
ward told me). When I came to myself I was 
standing in the middle of the road with a crowd of 
Yankees around me, among them the colonel of the 
regiment. I was holding in my hand the handle of 
my pistol, the barrel of which had been broken off 
by the fall. When called upon to surrender my 
arms I meekly handed up this handle, scarcely 
knowing what I was doing. One of the Yankees 
said, "I don't want that; I want your arms." My 
arms consisted of a sabre, a short cavalry gun and 
another pistol, that remained in its holder. 

With some assistance I unbuckled my belt and 




LTJTIIIOU W. IIOl'KINS. 

From Mil ..1,1 (iMmK.nv.it.vpo, in 1861, boforo cntoi-in.o- flu 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 63 

gave Up my arms. The colonel asked me if I was 
hurt, and some other questions which I cannot now 
recall. 

His own horse had been down on its knees, which 
were badly skinned. He dismounted and mounted 
another horse that had been brought to him, and 
told me I could have the use of his horse. I mount- 
ed with some difliculty, and was taken to the rear. 
There was very little firing; only one man was 
killed and one horse on our side. 

My horse, they afterward told me, passed 
through the command and did not stop until she 
got to Paris, four miles beyond. 

The Yankees remained only a short time, when 
they began their retreat down the pike with two 
prisoners — George Galliher and myself. On the 
way they picked up three or four citizens, which 
gave us some company. 

It was quite dark when we reached Middlcburg, 
and the command halted in the town for an hour, 
during which time I sat on my horse just in front of 
the house now occupied by Edwin LeRoy Broun. 

I could see the lights in the windows and see the 
family moving about, among them my sister. I 
made no effort to make myself known. After an 



64 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

hour's wait the command moved down the pike to- 
ward Washington, arriving at Fairfax Courthouse 
about midnight, where they went into camp. The 
next morning some 15 or 20 prisoners were brought 
in and put in an old log schoolhouse. We remain- 
ed there all that day, and the next day the citizens 
were released, and the soldier prisoners (about a 
dozen) were started for Washington under a guard 
of four cavalrymen. We were taken to the old 
Capitol at Washington and put into one of the 
rooms. I suppose there were several hundred pris- 
oners there at the time. We remained about a 
month, when we were exchanged. We were taken 
to Richmond by boat and turned over to the au- 
thorities there, and our Government released a 
similar number of Union prisoners, who returned 
on the same boat that brought us to Richmond. I 
took the train at Richmond, rode to Gordonsville, 
and footed it from there home, a distance of about 
100 miles. 

I found my horse awaiting me, and after a few 
days' rest, I mounted and rejoined my comrades at 
the little town of Paris, Fauquier county, where I 
had left them for a visit to Washington as a guest 
of the United States Government. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 65 

As the winter came on the Confederates drew in 
their outposts, and the enemy did likewise. This 

left the whole eastern part of Virginia free from the 
depredations of either army, except now and then 
a raid from one side on the other. 

My regiment was at camp in the woods near 
Harrisonburg, while Jackson's main army was 
with Lee, south of Fredericksburg. Jackson spent 
much time during the winter in religious work 
among his soldiers. "My ambition," he said, "is 
to command a converted army." He himself was 
one of the most devout men in the army, and seemed 
to be always in communion with his God. 

The winter was a hard one, and both armies kept 
pretty well within their winter quarters. 

We had no tents, but took fence rails, and putting 
one end on a pole fastened to two trees, and the 
other on the ground, and covering the rails with 
leaves and fastening up each end, leaving the front 
open, then building a big fire just in front, we 
had a very comfortable place to sleep. We sat on 
logs around the fire during the day and far into the 
night telling stories and entertaining ourselves in 
various ways. At night we crept under the roof of 



66 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

our shed, which was about a foot deep in leaves, 
and slept as comfortably as any farmer's hogs 
would do under similar circumstances. 

About the first of January my company was 
again detached from the regiment and sent to Ork- 
ney Springs, just at the foot of North mountain, 
west of Strassburg. 

Our duty was to keep a dozen men on the op- 
posite side of the mountain scouting and doing 
picket duty. It was our custom to relieve the men 
once a week by sending over another detachment 
and relieving those on duty. 

While at Orkney Springs we occupied cottages 
that were intended for the summer guests prior to 
the breaking out of hostilities. But after remain- 
ing in the cottages some time, the health of the com- 
mand was so poor that we were compelled to go 
back to the woods. In a short time the sickness 
disappeared from the camp, showing that the best 
place for a soldier is out in the open. 

Shortly after this word came that the enemy were 
advancing up the valley turnpike, and the whole 
regiment was ordered down to meet them, our com- 
pany in advance. 

Jt was March. The day was a stormy one. It 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 67 

snowed and rained alternately all day long, far 
into the night. 

When we left camp I was suffering with rheuma- 
tism in my hip, so that I had to use a stump to 
mount my horse, for I was determined to go with 
the regiment. Soldiers lying in camp idle soon get 
restless, and even cowards will hail with delight 
a chance to have a brush with the enemy. 

So notwithstanding the weather and physical ail- 
ments of some of the men, all went out of camp that 
morning bright and happy. 

It was a false alarm. The only enemy encoun- 
tered were the pelting snow and driving rain. The 
Yankees were snug in their tents, many miles away. 

We went into camp in the woods. I remember 
that I was wet to the skin, and I can see myself now 
sitting on a log pulling off first one long-legged 
boot, then the other, and pouring the water out. 

But before this, fires had sprung up all over the 
woods. In spite of the fact that everything was 
drenched and water was dripping from every twig, 
in an incredibly short time the whole woods were 
brilliantly illuminated by burning camp-fires. 

We got out our bacon and crackers and enjoyed 
a supper that no habitue of Delmonico's could 



68 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

have relished more. The bacon (not sugar-cured) 
was stuck on a stick and roasted before the fire, 
while the grease was allowed to fall on the cracker 
on a chip below. 

The Delmonico man might boast of a higher 
grade of food and better cooking, but the soldier 
wins on the appetite. 

After supper we stood around the camp-fires 
drying the outside of our clothes, telling stories and 
smoking. Then we prepared for bed. 

The men in the companies are always divided 
into messes ; the average number of men in each was 
usually about six. The messes were like so many 
families that lived together, slept together and ate 
together, and stood by each other in all emergen- 
cies. There was no rule regulating the messes. 
The men simply came together by common con- 
sent. "Birds of a feather flock together." 

In winter one bed was made for the whole mess. 
It consisted of laying down rubber cloths on the 
ground and covering them with a blanket, and an- 
other and another, as occasion required, and if the 
weather was foul, on top of that other rubber cloths. 
Our saddles, covered with our coats, were our pil- 
lows. The two end men had logs of wood to pro- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 69 

tcct them. Only our coats and boots were removed. 

On a cold winter night, no millionaire on his bed 
of down ever slept sweeter than a soldier on a bed 
like this. 

In the summer each soldier had a separate bed. 
If it were raining, he made his bed on top of two 
fence rails, if he could not find a better place. If 
the weather was good, old Mother Earth was all 
the soldier wanted. 

As this was a cold, stormy night, of course we all 
bunked together. My, what a nice, soft, sweaty 
time we had! The next morning all traces of my 
rheumatism had disappeared, and I felt as spry as 
a young kitten. 

As the day advanced the clouds rolled by, the 
sun came out bright and smiling, and the com- 
mand marched back to the old camp-ground, near 
Harrisonburg. 

With every regiment there is a Company Q. 
Company Q is composed of lame ducks, cowards, 
shirkers, dead-beats generally, and also a large 
sprinkling of good soldiers who, for some reason 
or other, are not fit for duty. Sometimes this com- 
pany is quite large. It depends upon the weather, 
the closeness of the enemy, and the duties that are 



70 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

being exacted. Bad weather will drive in all rheu- 
matics ; the coming battle will drive in the cowards ; 
hard marching and picket duty will bring in the 
lazy. But then, as I have just said, there were 
some good soldiers among them — the slightly 
wounded or those suffering from any disability. 
Taking them altogether. Company Q resembled 
Mother Goose's beggars that came to town; "some 
in rags, some in tags, and some in velvet gowns." 
Company Q was always the butt of the joker. 

A short time after the regiment had returned 
from its fruitless march down the pike, the four 
regiments composing the brigade under Gen. Wil- 
liam E. Jones were ordered to break camp and 
move across the mountains into the enemy's country 
in West Virginia. 

At that time I was almost blind with inflamed 
eyes. They looked like two clots of blood. Of 
course, I did not go with the command, but was 
forced to join Company Q. As well as I remember, 
the company numbered at that time over loo men, 
among them two or three officers. 

As the regiment expected to be absent for over a 
month and to return crowned with laurels, Com- 
pany Q conceived the idea of doing something that 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 7 1 

would put them on an equal footing with their com- 
rades when they returned from this expedition. 

A company was formed of about 100 men, who 
were soon on the march down the valley pike. My 
eyes had so improved that I could join them. 

The enemy was encamped near Winchester, per- 
haps 75 miles away. Our destination was this 
camp. We were to march down the valley, 
make a night attack and come back with all the 
plunder we could carry off or drive ofif. Every 
fellow expected to bring back at least one extra 
horse. 

We reached the west branch of the Shenandoah, 
near Strasburg, and went into camp for the night, 
having first put out pickets at the various fords up 
and down the river. 

The enemy's camp was supposed to be ten miles 
beyond. We intended to remain at this camp until 
the next evening about dusk, and then start for the 
enemy, timing ourselves to reach their camp about 
midnight. 

The next morning about 9 o'clock we came down 
from our camp into the open field to graze our 
horses. We had taken the bits out of their mouths 
and were lying around loose, while the horses crop- 



72 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

pcd the grass, when all at once someone shouted 
"Yankees." Sure enough, there they were, a 
whole regiment of Union cavalrymen. They had 
crossed the river some distance below our pickets 
and had placed themselves directly in our rear, 
cutting ofif our retreat. We soon had our horses 
bridled, and, mounting, made for the river. Our 
commander sent me down the river to call in the 
pickets, but I did not go far until I met them com- 
ing in. They had heard the firing. We had a des- 
perate race to join the fleeing company, but did so, 
narrowly escaping capture. 

There was a small body of woods on the banks of 
the river, where we found shelter for the moment. 
We were entirely cut off from the fords, and there 
was no way of crossing the river but to swim. The 
banks were steep on each side, so it looked as if that 
would be the last of poor Company Q. We dis- 
mounted, got behind the trees, and were ready to 
give our tormentors a warm reception, but Provi- 
dence seemed to smile on us. Someone discovered 
a little stream running into the river. We followed 
that down into the river, and the whole command 
swam across and climbed the banks on the other 
side, except two men — Milton Robinson and my- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 73 

scif. Our horses refused to swim. They behaved 
so ugly that we had to abandon them. Mine was 
the same "jade" that had dumped me on the Yan- 
kees a few months before. Now I had a chance to 
reciprocate. I tied her to a little sapling at the edge 
of the river, and Robinson and I hid in the bushes 
close by the banks. The Yankees came down and 
took our horses, and after searching around for 
some time, vacated the premises, much to our grati- 
fication. 

The loss of our horses grieved us very much, but 
such is the life of a soldier. 

My comrades in crossing the river were In the 
enemy's country, and were liable to be surrounded 
and captured at any time, but they made their es- 
cape in some way, and lost no time in getting back 
to camp, many miles away. 

Robinson and I, of course, had to foot it, but in 
a few days we also reached camp, much to the 
surprise of our comrades, who thought the enemy 
had us. Thus terminated ingloriously the well- 
planned expedition of Company Q. 

In about two weeks the brigade came back from 
the West Virginia expedition, and Company Q re- 
ceived the Sixth Regiment with open arms. Just 



74 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

what the expedition accomplished I am not able to 
say, but there is one little incident connected with 
it that has lingered lovingly in my memory to this 
day. 

Every mess had in it a forager ; that is, one skilled 
in the art of picking up delicacies. At least we 
called them such, as this term was applied to any- 
thing edible above hardtack and salt pork. We 
had a forager in our mess, and he was hard to beat. 
His name was Fauntleroy Neill. He was a close 
friend of mine. We called him Faunt. 

Whenever he went on an expedition he always 
came back loaded. As he was with the brigade in 
West Virginia, we knew that when he returned 
(if he did return) he would bring back something 
good, and he did. I cannot remember all the things 
he had strapped to his saddle, but one thing looms 
up before my mind now as big as a Baltimore sky- 
scraper. It was about half a bushel of genuine 
grain coffee, unroasted. There was also sugar to 
sweeten it. Grains of coffee in the South during 
the Civil War were as scarce as grains of gold, and 
when toasting time came and the lid was lifted to 
stir this coffee, it is said that the aroma from it 
spread through the trees and over the fields for 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 75 

many miles around. I forgot the long, weary 
march on foot back up the valley, forgot the 
loss of my horse, and really felt as if I had been 
fully compensated for any inconvenience that had 
come to me from the ill-starred tramp of Com- 
pany Q. 

Spring had now fully come, the roads were dry, 
and the time for action had arrived. 

Hooker, at the head of 120,000 Northern sol- 
diers, was again crossing the Rappahannock, near 
Fredericksburg, to lock horns with Lee and Jack- 
son. 

Hooker had superseded Burnside in command 
of the Union army. They called him "fighting 
Joe." 

He handled his army the first two or three 
days with consummate skill, and at one stage of 
his maneuvers he felt confident that he had out- 
generaled Lee and Jackson. He believed they 
were in full retreat, and so informed the Washing- 
ton Government. But he was doomed to a terrible 
disappointment. What Hooker took to be a re- 
treat of the Confederates was simply a change of 
front, which was followed up by Jackson executing 
another one of his bold flank movements, the most 



jt FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

brilliant of his brief career, the result of which was 
Hooker's defeat. The entire Union army was 
thrown into such confusion that it was compelled 
to retreat across the river, after sustaining heavy 
losses in killed and wounded. 

The New Standard Encyclopedia gives Hook- 
er's army as 130,000; Lee's, 60,000. Hooker's 
losses, 18,000; Lee's, 13,000. 

Perhaps no general on either side during the en- 
tire war felt more keenly his defeat than did Hook- 
er on this occasion. For a while everything seemed 
to be going his way, when suddenly the tide turned, 
and he saw his vast army in a most critical situation, 
and apparently at the mercy of his opponent. 

History tells the whole story in better language 
than I can. It calls it the "Battle of Chancellors- 
ville." 

Carl Schurz, one of the generals in Hooker's 
army, says that never did Gen. Lee's qualities as a 
soldier shine as brilliantly as they did in this battle. 
To quote his own language, "We had 120,000 men, 
Lee 60,000. Yet Lee handled his forces so skill- 
fully that whenever he attacked he did it with a 
superior force, and in this way he overwhelmed our 
army and compelled its retreat, after suffering ter- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. TJ 

rible losses not only in dead and wounded, but in 
prisoners." 

But the Confederates also suffered a tremendous 
loss at Chancellorsville. Just at the moment when 
he was about to gather the fruit of his victory, 
which might have resulted in the surrender of 
Hooker's army, or the greater portion of it, Stone- 
wall Jackson was fired on by his own men, mortally 
wounded, and died a few days afterwards. 

The following account of the wounding of Jack- 
son, as related by an eye-witness, will be of interest 
to the reader: 

"It was 9 o'clock at night. There was a lull in 
the battle, and Jackson's line had become somewhat 
disorganized by the men gathering in groups and 
discussing their brilliant victory. Jackson, notic- 
ing the confusion, rode up and down the line, say- 
ing, 'Men, get into line, get into line; I need your 
help for a time. This disorder must be corrected.' 

"He had just received information that a large 
body of fresh troops from the Union army was ad- 
vancing to retake an important position that it had 
lost. Jackson had gone loo yards in front of his 
own line to get a better view of the enemy's posi- 
tion. The only light that he had to guide him was 



78 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

that furnished by the moon. He was attended by 
half a dozen orderlies and several of his staff offi- 
cers, when he was suddenly surprised by a volley of 
musketry in his front. The bullets began whistling 
about them, and struck several horses. This was 
the advance guard of the Federal lines. Jackson, 
seeing the danger, turned and rode rapidly back 
toward his own line. As they approached, the Con- 
federate troops, mistaking them for the enemy's 
cavalry, stooped and delivered a deadly fire. So 
sudden was this volley, and so near at hand, that 
every horse which was not shot down recoiled from 
it in panic and turned to rush back,bearing his rider 
toward the approaching enemy. Several fell dead 
on the spot, and more were wounded, among them 
Gen. Jackson. His right hand was penetrated by 
a ball, his left was lacerated by another, and the 
same arm was broken a little below the shoulder 
by a third ball, which not only crushed the bone, 
but severed the main artery. His horse dashed, 
panic-stricken, toward the enemy, carrying him be- 
neath the boughs of the trees, which inflicted sev- 
eral blows, lacerated his face, and almost dragged 
him from the saddle. His bridle hand was now 
powerless, but seizing the rein with his right hand, 




iiK LAST MEETING OF LEE AND JACKSON AT CHANCELLORSVILLE 
rhi. picture was not taken from ]ifo, but is the creation of the artist's brain. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 79 

notwithstanding its wound, he arrested his horse 
and brought the animal back toward his own line. 
"He was followed byhis faithful attendants. The 
firing of the Confederates had now been arrested 
by some of the officers, who realized their mis- 
take, but the wounded and frantic horses were rush- 
ing without riders through the woods, where the 
ground was strewn with the dead and dying. Here 
Gen. Jackson drew up his horse and sat for an in- 
stant, gazing toward his own line, as if in astonish- 
ment at their cruel mistake, and in doubt whether 
he should again venture to approach them. He 
said to one of his staff, *I believe my arm is broken,' 
and requested him to assist him from his horse and 
examine whether the wounds were bleeding dan- 
gerously. Before he could dismount he sank faint- 
ing into their arms, so completely prostrated that 
they were compelled to disengage his feet from the 
stirrups. They carried him a few yards into the 
woods north of the turnpike to shield him from the 
expected advance of the Federalists. One was sent 
for an ambulance and a surgeon, while another 
stripped his mangled arm in order to bind up the 
wound. The warm blood was flowing in a stream 
down his wrist. His clothes impeded all access to 



8o FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

its source, and nothing was at hand more cfHcient 
than a penknife to remove the obstruction. 

"Just at this momentGen. Hill appeared upon the 
scene with a part of his staff. They called upon 
him for assistance. One of his staff, Maj. Leigh, 
succeeded in reaching thewound and staunching the 
blood with a handkerchief. It was at this moment 
that two Federal skirmishers approached within a 
few feet of the spot where he lay, with their mus- 
kets cocked. They little knew what a prize was in 
their grasp. When, at the command of Gen. Hill, 
two orderlies arose from the kneeling group and 
demanded their surrender, they seemed amazed 
at their nearness to their enemy, and yielded their 
arms without resistance. 

"Lieut. Morrison, suspecting from their approach 
that the Federals must be near at hand, stepped 
into the road to investigate, and by the light of the 
moon he saw a cannon pointing toward them, ap- 
parently not more than loo yards distant. In- 
deed, it was so near that the orders given by the 
officers to the cannoneers could be distinctly heard. 
Returning hurriedly, he announced that the enemy 
were planting artillery in the road and that the 
general must be immediately removed. Gen. Hill 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 8 1 

now remounted and hurried back to make arrange- 
ments to meet this attack. In the combat which en- 
sued, he himself was wounded a few moments after, 
and compelled to leave the field. No ambulance or 
litter was yet at hand, and the necessity for imme- 
diate removal suggested that they should bear the 
general away in their arms. To this he replied that 
if they would assist him to rise, he would walk to 
the rear. He was accordingly raised to his feet, 
and leaning upon the shoulders of two of his stafif, 
he went slowly out of the highway, and toward his 
own troops. 

"The party was now met by a litter, which some- 
one had sent from the rear, and the general was 
placed upon it and borne along by two of his offi- 
cers. Just then the enemy fired a volley of canister 
shot up the road, which passed over their heads, 
but they proceeded only a few steps before the 
charge was repeated with more accurate aim. One 
of the officers bearing the litter was struck down, 
when Maj. Leigh, who was walking by their side, 
prevented the general from being precipitated to 
the ground. Just then the roadway was swept by 
a hurricane of projectiles of every species, before 
which it seemed no living thing could survive. The 



82 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

bearers of the litter and all the attendants except 
Maj. Leigh and the general's two aids left him and 
fled into the woods on either side to escape the fear- 
ful tempest, while the sufferer lay along the road 
with his feet toward the foe, exposed to all its fury. 
It was now that his three faithful attendants dis- 
played a heroic fidelity which deserves to go down 
with the immortal name of Jackson into future 
ages. 

^'Disdaining to save their lives by deserting their 
chief, they lay down beside him in the causeway 
and sought to protect him as far as possible with 
their bodies. On one side was Maj. Leigh, and on 
the other Lieut. Smith. Again and again was the 
earth around them torn with volleys of canister, 
while shells and minie balls flev/ hissing over 
them. The contact of the iron hail caused spark- 
ling flashes from the flinty gravel of the roadway. 
Gen. Jackson struggled violently to rise, as though 
to endeaver to leave the road, but Smith threw his 
arm over him and with friendly force held him to 
the earth, saying, 'Sir, you must lie still; it will 
cost you your life if you rise.' He speedily ac- 
quiesced, and lay quiet, but none of the four hoped 
to escape alive. Yet, almost by miracle, they were 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 83 

unharmed, and after a few moments the Feder- 
alists, having cleared the road of all except this lit- 
tle party, ceased to fire along it, and directed their 
aim to another quarter. 

''They now arose and resumed their retreat, the 
general, walking and leaning upon two of his 
friends, proceeded along the gutter at the margin 
of the highway in order to avoid ths troops, who 
were again hurrying to the front. Perceiving that 
he was recognized by some of them, they diverged 

still farther into the edge of the thicket. It was 

• 

here that Gen. Pender of North Carolina, who had 
succeeded to the command of Hill's division upon 
the wounding of that officer, recognized Gen. Jack- 
son, and said, 'My men are thrown into such con- 
fusion by this fire that I fear I shall not be able to 
hold my ground.' Almost fainting with anguish 
and loss of blood, he still replied, in a voice feeble 
but full of his old determination and authority, 
'Gen. Pender, you must keep your men together 
and hold your ground.' This was the last military 
order ever given by Jackson. 

"Gen. Jackson now complained of faintness, and 
was again placed upon the litter, and after some 
difficulty, men were obtained to bear him. To 



84 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

avoid the enemy's fire, which was again sweeping 
the road, they made their way through the tangled 
brushwood, almost tearing his clothing from him, 
and lacerating his face in their hurried progress. 
iThe foot of one of the men bearing his head was 
here tangled in a vine, and he fell prostrate. The 
general was thus thrown heavily to the ground 
upon his wounded side, inflicting painful bruises 
on his body and intolerable agony on his mangled 
arm, and renewing the flow of blood from it. As 
they lifted him up he uttered one piteous groan, 
the only complaint which escaped his lips during 
the whole scene. Lieut. Smith raised his head 
upon his bosom, almost fearing to see him expiring 
in his arms, and asked, "General, are you much 
hurt?" He replied, No, Mr. Smith, don't trouble 
yourself about me. He was then replaced a sec- 
ond time upon the litter, and under a continuous 
shower of shells and cannon balls, borne a half 
mile farther to the rear, when an ambulance was 
found, containing his chief of artillery. Col. 
Crutchfield, who was also wounded. In this he was 
placed and hurried toward the field hospital, near 
Wilderness Run. From there he was taken to a 
farmhouse, his left arm amputated, and a few days 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 8^ 

afterward he died. His wife and little child were 
with him." Thus ended the life of one of the 
world's greatest warriors and one of Christ's great- 
est soldiers. 

The following ode to Stonewall Jackson was 
written by a Union officer (Miles O'Reiley), and 
is inserted here in preference to others that may 
have been quite as appropriate, because of the 
added beauty of sentiment it conveys from the fact 
that its author wore the blue: 

He sleeps all quietly and cold 
Beneath the soil that gave him birth; 

Then break his battle brand in twain, 
And lay it with him in the earth. 

No more at midnight shall he urge 
His toilsome march among the pines, 

Nor hear upon the morning air 
The war shout of his charging lines. 

No more for him shall cannon bark 
Or tents gleam white upon the plain; 

And where his camp fires blazed of yore, 
Brown reapers laugh amid the grain ! 

No more above his narrow bed 
Shall sound the tread of marching feet. 

The rifle volley and the crash 
Of sabres when the foeman meet. 



86 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Young April o'er his lowly mound 
Shall shake the violets from her hair, 

And glorious June with fervid kiss 
Shall bid the roses blossom there. 

And white-winged peace o'er all the land 

Broods like a dove upon her nest, 
While iron War, with slaughter gorged. 

At length hath laid him down to rest 

And where we won our onward way. 
With fire and steel through yonder wood, 

The blackbird whistles and the quail 
Gives answer to her timid brood. 

And oft when white-haired grandsires tell 

Of bloody struggles past and gone, 
The children at their knees will hear 

How Jackson led his columns on! 

I have only referred incidentally to Jackson's 
Valley Campaign. It was short, but intensely 
dramatic. For bold maneuvering, rapid marching 
and brilliant strategy, I believe it has no parallel in 
history. As for results, without it Richmond doubt- 
less would have been in the hands of McClellan in 
the spring of 1862.* 

Perhaps it is not extravagant to say that as the 
tidings reached the people all over the South that 
their idol was dead, more sorrow was expressed in 

*See Chapter XIV, page 284. 




'I'liis mdmimont was erected to mark tlio spot on the liattleflekl, of Chan- 
cellorsville wliere Stonewall Jackson received Ills death wound May 2, 1S63. 

"Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the {rvati/'—Jack-sou'ii 
l>in>i!i W'ord.'i. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 87 

tears than was ever known in the history of the 
world at the loss of any one man. 

As the Israelites saw Elijah depart they exclaim- 
ed, "The chariots of Israel and the horsemen 
thereof!" 

The South felt that in the loss of Stonewall Jack- 
son they were parting with the ''better half" of 
their army. 

The North had the men, the money and the mu- 
nitions of war, but the South had L>ee and Stonewall 
Jackson. And in having them they felt that they 
were more than a match for the North. Now that 
Jackson was gone the question was, What will Gen. 
Lee do? 

To go back to the valley, I was indebted to my 
friend Faunt Neill for the loan of a horse, he being 
fortunate enough to have two. 

After the battle of Chancellorsville almost the 
entire force in the valley passed over the Blue 
Ridge and joined Lee's army on the Rappahan- 
nock. Of course, this included my command. 

Lee's army still occupied the south bank of the 
Rappahannock, near the late battlefield, while just 
opposite, on the north bank, was the Union army 
waiting to see what the next move would be. I be- 



88 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

lieve I have mentioned the fact that Gen. J. E. B. 
Stuart commanded Lee's entire cavalry force, about 
10,000 men, with several batteries of artillery. 
This force was encamped higher up the river, in 
Culpeper county, in and around Brandy Station, 
and might be called the left wing of Lee's army, 
although separated from it by several miles. 

Just opposite Stuart's cavalry and on the north 
bank of the river was the entire cavalry force of 
the Union army, supported by a corps of infantry. 



Chapter VI. 

From Chancellorsville to Gettysburg 

"It was the wild midnight — 

The storm was on the sky; 
The lightning gave its light, 

And the thunder echoed by." 

After resting a while and mourning the loss of 
our great soldier, Lee's army began to move. The 
question was (not only on our side of the river, but 
on the other), "What is Gen. Lee up to now?" 

The Northern commander determined to inves- 
tigate, and early in the morning of the ninth of 
June, 1863, a portion of the Union army began to 
cross the Rappahannock at every ford for miles, 
up and down the river. 

I was on picket at one of the fords, and was re- 
lieved at 3 o'clock in the morning, another soldier 
taking my place. 

I went up through the field into the woods 
where our reserves (some 20 men) were in camp. 
It was from this squadron that pickets were sent 
out and posted along the river. 

I hitched my horse, and, wrapped in a blanket, 



90 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

lay down to sleep. But I was soon rudely awak- 
ened by the watchman, who shouted that the enemy 
was crossing the river. We all jumped up and 
mounted our horses. Our captain was with us. 

The day was just breaking. The pickets were 
hurrying up from the river in every direction, fir- 
ing their pistols to give the alarm. 

Our captain formed the men in the edge of 
the woods for the purpose of checking for a few 
minutes the advancing enemy, so as to give the 
10,000 cavalrymen that were encamped a mile or 
so in the rear time to saddle and mount their horses 
and prepare for battle. 

The enemy came pouring up from the river, and 
we opened fire on them, checking them for the mo- 
ment. Two of our men were killed, several wound- 
ed, and two horses killed. 

Two couriers had gone ahead to arouse the camp. 
We soon followed them along the road through the 
woods, the enemy hard on our heels. 

I was riding with the captain in the rear. We 
were not aware that the Yankees were so close to 
us, and the captain was calling to the men to check 
their speed. I looked behind, called to the captain 
and told him they were right on us, and just as I 



FROM DULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 91 

spoke two bullets went hissing by my head. The 
captain yelled to his men to move forward, and 
bending low on the necks of our horses, we gave 
them the spur. 

As we came out of the woods into the fields we 
met the Sixth Virginia (my regiment), under Col. 
Flournoy, coming down the road at full gallop. 
Just on his left, and almost on a line with the Sixth, 
was the Seventh Regiment coming across the fields 
(for there were no fences then). These two regi- 
ments entered the woods, one on the right and one 
on the left, and, stretching out on either side, poured 
a volley into the advancing enemy that caused them 
to halt for a while. 

The roar of the guns in the woods at that early 
hour in the morning was terrific. What was going 
on in front of us was being enacted up and down 
the river for at least three miles. 

Our forces then fell back into the open country, 
and the battle continued, at intervals, all day long. 

The Yankees were supported by infantry, while 
we had nothing but cavalry and artillery. 

Our enemies could have driven us back farther 
if they had tried to, but they seemed to be afraid of 
getting into trouble. I do not know what our com- 



92 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

mander, Gen. Stuart, knew, but I did not suppose 
that Gen. Lee was within 30 miles of us. To- 
ward sunset I saw him come riding across the fields 
on his gray horse, "Traveller," accompanied by his 
staff. He seemed as calm and unconcerned as if he 
were inspecting the land with the view of a pur- 
chase. 

Whether it was the presence of Gen. Lee himself, 
or the fear that he had his army with him, I know 
not, but simultaneously with the appearance of 
Gen. Lee the enemy began to move back and re- 
cross the river. We did not press them, but gave 
them their own time. 

We re-established our picket line along the rivei", 
and everything was quiet for a day or two. 

We went down the next day to the spot where the 
first fight took place, and found our two men lying 
dead by the side of a tree, and several dead horses. 
The enemy had removed their dead (if they had 
any). It was too dark when we were fighting for 
us to see whether we did any execution or not at this 
particular point. We buried our two men where 
they fell and went back to camp. Total losses as 
reported by each side — Confederate, 485 ; Federal, 

907. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 93 

The next day we were quietly resting in the 
woods, watching the infantry as they tramped by all 
day long, moving in a northeasterly direction. The 
question was asked 10,000 times perhaps that day, 
"What is Marse Robert up to now? Where is he 
taking us?" (Gen. Lee was called Marse Robert 
by his soldiers.) 

In the afternoon we noticed a long string of 
wagons of a peculiar construction, each drawn by 
six horses, and loaded with something covered with 
white canvas. Of course, we were all curious to 
know what these wagons contained. The secret 
soon leaked out. They were pontoon bridges. And 
then we began to speculate as to what rivers we 
were to cross. Some said we were destined for the 
Ohio, others for the Potomac. 

Just before sunset the bugle sounded "saddle up," 
and soon Stuart's cavalry was in the saddle and on 
the march. 

Everything was trending onenvay, namely, north- 
east. 

The infantry went into camp at night, but the 
cavalry marched through most of the night, cross- 
ing the Rappahannock several miles above where 
we had been fighting. 



94 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Lee's entire army was on the way to Pennsyl- 
vania, as we afterward learned, the cavalry keeping 
in between the two armies, protecting the wagon 
trains and concealing, as far as possible, our army's 
destination.* 

The infantry, artillery and baggage train crossed 
the Blue Ridge at the various gaps, fording the 
Shenandoah river, and moved down the Valley of 
Virginia toward the Potomac. t 

Lee's cavalry kept on the east side of the moun- 
tain, holding the enemy back as much as possible. 

When we reached Fauquier and Loudoun coun- 
ties the Union cavalry made a desperate effort to 
drive in our cavalry and discover the route of our 
main army. 

*Tlic two armies, occupying opposite hnnks of the river near 
Fredericksburg, began tlioir inarcli for Gctlyslnirg June the 3rd, 
1S63, moving nortlieast along tlie Ivappahannock river, the cavalry 
of each army inarching between. Wlien Lee reached the lUue Ridge 
he crossed it at throe different places, Chester Gap. Ashhy's and 
Snickersville Gaps. The two cavalry forces came together and fought 
quite a severe battle, beginning at Aldie, below Middloburg, and ex- 
tending to Paris, at the foot of the mountain. Directly after this 
battle Stuart took the main part of liis cavalry, moved back as far 
as Salem, or Delaplane, as it is now called, moved across the coun- 
try in rear of the Fedora! army, passing Manassas and Contervillc, 
then marched direct for the Potomac, which he crossed between 
Lee.sburg and Washington. Then through Maryland into Peinisyl- 
vania as far as Carlisle, and there be turned south, arriving at 
Gettysburg on the night after the second day of the battle, thus 
completely encircling the Union army. (See map). 



tOn its march down the Virginia valley to the Potomac Lee's 
army took 4000 prisoners, .^5 cannon, 250 wagons, 400 horses, 269 
small arms and quantities of stores. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 95 

Heavy fighting began at Aldic, below Middlc- 
burg, and was continued up the pike through the 
town of Middlcburg as far as Uppcrvillc, where 
I had been captured the year before. 

The enemy's cavalry was»'Supportcd by infantry, 
and our forces fell back fighting foot by foot until 
they reached Upperville, where we met a division 
of infantry that Gen. Lee had sent to help us beat 
back the enemy. The Confederates who were 
killed in this action are buried in Middleburg and 
Upperville, in the cemeteries just outside of the two 
towns, and the ladies of these villages and the coun- 
try round about were kept busy caring for the 
wounded. 

I escaped some of the heaviest of this fighting by 
being detailed to guard the prisoners back to Win- 
chester. 

The night before the battle I was sent out along 
the road at the foot of the mountain to discover 
whether the enemy was approaching from that 
direction or not. After a lonely ride of several 
hours I came back and had a time finding Gen. 
Stuart, to whom I was instructed to report. I found 
him asleep on the porch of the home of Caleb Rec- 
tor. I aroused him and delivered my message. 



96 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

His reply was, "All right." I looked up my own 
command, and lay down for the remainder of the 
night. 

Lee's army crossed the river at Williamsport, 
Md., on the pontoon bridge.* The Northern army 
crossed between Harper's Ferry and Washington, 
and our cavalry, strange to say, went below the 
Union army and crossed the river near Washington, 
thus circling the Union army and arriving at Get- 
tysburg the last day of the battle. Stuart captured 
and destroyed many wagons and much property on 
this expedition. 

My brigade of cavalry did not follow Stuart, but 
followed the main army, bringing up the rear. 

After crossing the river, Lee led his main army 
straight for Chambersburg, Pa. I cannot describe 
the feeling of the Southern soldiers as they crossed 
the line separating Maryland and Pennsylvania, 
and trod for the first time the sacred soil of the 
North. Many of our soldiers had been on Mary- 
land soil before this, and although Maryland was 

*The map shows two points where Lee crossed into Maryland, 
one part of tlic army crossing the Potomac at Williamsport, and ihe 
other at Slicpherdstown, and, uniting at Hagerstown, moved on toward 
Chambersburg. ]"rom tliis point, Lee sent a portion of Ewoll's divi- 
sion as far north as Carlisle, while another portion marched to Yoric, 
then to Wrightsville, on the Susqi-.ehanna river, all returning in tim^ 
to meet the Union army at Gettysburg. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 97 

not a part of the Confederacy, we felt that she 
was one of us, and while marching over her 
roads and fields we were still in our own domain, 
but not so when we crossed into Pennsylvania. We 
were then in the enemy's territory, and it gave us in- 
expressible joy to think that we were strong enough 
and bold enough to go so far from home and attack 
our enemy upon his own soil. The joy of our sol- 
diers knew no bounds. We were as light-hearted 
and as gay as children on a picnic, and we had no 
fear as to the result of the move. 

Marching along the pike one day, the cavalry 
halted, and just on our left was a modest home 
of a farmer. The garden was fenced, and came out 
and bordered on the road. His raspberries were 
ripe, and our soldiers sat on their horses, and 
leaning over were picking the berries from the 
vines. One soldier was bold enough to dis- 
mount and get over into the garden. We saw the 
family watching us from the window. The impu- 
dence on the part of this soldier was a little too 
much for the farmer. He came out with an old- 
fashioned shotgun and berated us in a manner most 
vehement, but did not shoot. This stirred the risi- 
bles of our soldiers to such an extent that the whole 
command broke out with loud laughter and hurrah 



98 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

for the brave farmer, who single-handed, and with 
a single-barrel shotgun, was defying the whole 
rebel horde. If the entire command had leveled 
its guns at him I think he would have stood his 
ground, but he could not stand our ridicule, so he 
went back into his house, and all was quiet again. 
Presently the command moved off, leaving what 
berries they did not have time to pick. From Cham- 
bersburg, Lee turned his columns southward and 
moved toward Gettysburg to meet the Union army 
that was advancing in the opposite direction. The 
armies met, and the whole world knows the result. 

The battle lasted three days. The first two days 
were decidedly in favor of the Confederates. My 
command took an active part in the battle, and the 
adjutant of my regiment was killed, also several in 
my company, and some were badly wounded andhad 
to be left. I was struck with a ball on the shoulder, 
marking my coat, and had a bullet hole through the 
rim of my hat; but as the latter was caused by my 
own careless handling of my pistol, I can't count it 
as a trophy. 

As the years go by the students of history are 
more and more amazed at the boldness of Gen. Lee 
in placing his army of 75,000, some say 65,000, at 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 99 

Gettysburg,* when he knew that between him and 
the capital of the Confederacy (which his army 
was intended to protect) was the capital of the 
United States, protected by an army of not less than 
200,000 soldiers, and I might add by the best- 
equipped army in the world, for the United States 
Government had the markets of the world to draw 
supplies from. 

On the morning of the third day of the battle of 
Gettysburg there had been a terrible artillery duel 
that made the earth tremble for miles around, and 
was heard far and wide. 

When the guns got too hot for safety the firing 
ceased, the noise died away and the soldiers lay 
down to rest. 

Prior to this Gen. Lee had called his generals 
together for counsel. The situation had grown seri- 
ous. Lee's losses had been heavy in killed and 
wounded, and his stock of ammunition was grow- 
ing low. 

After considerable discussion Lee mounted his 



♦General Longstreet, in his book "From Manassas to Appo- 
mattox," says the Confederate forces that crossed the Potomac were 
75,568, and fixes the total of the Union army at loo.coo, in round 
figures. General Meade's monthly return for June 30 shows 99,131 
present for duty and equipped at Gettysburg. 



lOO FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

gray horse, rode off a few paces to a slight elevation, 
and lifting his field glass to his eyes looked intently 
at the long lines of blue that stretched along the 
slopes, in the hope of finding some weak point 
which he might attack. Then returning to his offi- 
cers he said in a firm voice: "We will attack the 
enemy's center, cut through, roll back their wings 
on either side and crush or rout their army." Then 
he said : "Gen. Pickett will lead the attack." 

Pickett was a handsome young Virginian, a 
splendid rider, a brave commander, and one of the 
most picturesque figures in the Confederate army. 
Bowing his head in submission, he mounted his 
horse, and tossing back his long auburn locks, rode 
off and disappeared among the trees. The other 
officers soon joined their several commands, and 
Gen. Lee was left alone with his staff. After the 
artillery duel there was ominous silence; even the 
winds had gone away, and the banners hung limp 
on their staffs. The birds had all left the trees, the 
cattle had left the fields, and the small squadrons of 
cavalry that had been scouting between the two 
armies retired and took position on either flank. 
Yonder in front, stretching along the slopes, lay the 
blue lines of the enemy, like a huge monster asleep, 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 01 

while behind were the hilltops, all frowning with 
wide-mouthed cannon loaded to the lips. 

Soon long lines of gray came stealing out of the 
woods like waves out of the sea. Long lines of gray 
moved over the fields like waves over the sea. These 
were Pickett's men ; and Pickett, handsome Pickett, 
was at their head riding in silence. 

The polished steel of the guns, as the lines rose 
and fell over the uneven ground, caught the rays of 
the bright July sun, developing a picture of daz- 
zling splendor. 

I wonder what was passing through the minds of 
those boys (their average age perhaps not much 
over twenty) as they moved step by step toward 
those bristling lines of steel in their front? 

They were thinking of home, far over the hills, 
where loved ones were waiting. 

Step by step came the gray, nearer and nearer, 
when suddenly there was a sound that shook the 
hills and made every heart quake. It was the signal 
gun. 

Simultaneously with the sound came a cannon 
ball hissing through the air, and passing over the 
heads of the advancing columns, struck the ground 
beyond. 



102 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Then suddenly the whole slope was wreathed in 
smoke and flame, accompanied with a noise like the 
roar of a thousand cataracts. 

Was it a huge volcanic eruption? No. The 
Blue and the Gray had met. The smoke rose higher 
and higher, and spread wider and wider, hiding the 
sun, and then gently dropping back, hid from 
human eyes the dreadful tragedy. 

But the battle went on and on, and the roar of the 
guns continued. After a while, when the sun was 
sinking to rest, there was a hush. The noise died 
away. The winds came creeping back from the 
west, and gently lifting the coverlet of smoke, 
revealed a strange sight. 

The fields were all carpeted, a beautiful carpet, a 
costly carpet, more costly than Axminster or vel- 
vet. The figures were horses and men all matted 
and woven together with skeins of scarlet thread. 

The battle is over and Gettysburg has passed into 
history. 

The moon and the stars come out, and the sur- 
geons with their attendants appear with their knives 
and saws, and when morning came there were stacks 
of legs and arms standing in the fields like shocks of 
corn. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 103 

The two armies confronted each other all next 
day, but not a shot was fired. Up to noon that day, 
I think I can safely say there was not a man in 
either army, from the commanders-in-chief to the 
humblest private in the ranks, that knew how the 
battle had gone save one, and that one was Gen. 
Robert E. Lee. 

About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, while the cav- 
alrymen were grazing their horses in the rear of the 
infantry, a low, rumbling sound was heard resem- 
bling distant thunder, except that it was continuous. 
A private (one of my company) standing near me 
stood up and pointing toward the battlefield said, 
"Look at that, will you?" A number of us rose to 
our feet and saw a long line of wagons with their 
white covers moving toward us along the road lead- 
ing to Chambersburg. 

Then he used this strange expression: "That 
looks like a mice." A slang phrase often used at 
that time. He meant nothing more nor less than 
this: "We are beaten and our army is retreating." 

The wagons going back over the same road that 
had brought us to Gettysburg told the story, and 
soon the whole army knew the fact. This was the 
first time Lee's army had ever met defeat. 



I04 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

It is said that the loss of the two armies was about 
50,000. This probably included the prisoners; but 
there were not many prisoners taken on either side. 
The major portion of the losses was in killed and 
wounded. 

The badly wounded were left on the field to be 
cared for by the enemy. Those who could walk, and 
those who were able to ride and could find places 
in the wagons followed the retreating army. 

The wagon train was miles and miles long. It did 
not follow the road to Chambersburg very far, but 
turned ofif and took a shorter cut through a moun- 
tainous district toward the point where the army 
had crossed the river into Maryland. This wagon 
train was guarded by a large body of cavalry, in- 
cluding my command. 

Just as the sun was going down, dark ominous 
clouds came trooping up from the west with thun- 
der and lightning, and it was not long before the 
whole heavens were covered and rain was falling in 
torrents. 

I am not familiar with the topography of the 
country through which we retreated, but all night 
long we seemed to be in a narrow road, with steep 
hills or mountains on either side. We had with us 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 105 

a good many cattle with which to feed the army. 
These got loose in the mountains and hills covered 
with timber, and between their constant bellowing 
and the flashes of lightning and crashing thunderthe 
night was hideous in the extreme. Wagons were 
breaking down, others getting stalled, and, to make 
matters worse, about midnight we were attacked by 
the Union cavalry. 

This mountainous road came out on a wide turn- 
pike, and just at this point Kilpatrick (command- 
ing the Union cavalry) had cut our wagon train in 
two and planted a battery of artillery with the guns 
pointing toward the point from which we were 
advancing. 

The cavalry which was stretched along the 
wagon train was ordered to the front. It was with 
great difficulty that we could get past the wagons 
in the darkness, and hence our progress was slow, 
but we finally worked our way up to the front and 
were dismounted and formed in line as best we 
could on either side of the road among the rocks 
and trees and then moved forward in an effort to 
drive the battery away from its- position so we could 
resume our march. The only light we had to guide 
us was from the lightning in the heavens and the 



I06 FROM BULL RUN TO* APPOMATTOX. 

vivid flashes that came from the enemy's cannon. 
Their firing did not do much execution, as they 
failed to get a proper range. Besides, we were so 
close to them they were firing over our heads, but 
the booming of the guns that hour of night, with the 
roar of the thunder, was terrifying indeed, and be- 
yond description. We would wait for a lightning 
flash and advance a few steps and halt, and then for 
a light from the batteries and again advance. 

In the meantime day was breaking, and the light 
from the sun was coming in, and at this point our 
enemy disappeared and the march was resumed. 
We were afraid that the two hundred wagons that 
had already passed out on the open turnpike had 
been captured, but such was not the case. 

With these wagons was our brigadier com- 
mander. Gen. Wm. E, Jones, and two regiments of 
cavalry. We got so mixed up with the enemy's 
cavalry that night that it was almost impossible to 
distinguish friend from foe. Our general was a 
unique character, and many are the jokes that are 
told on him. While this fighting was going on 
those about him would address him as general. He 
rebuked them for this and said, "Call me Bill." 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 07 

The explanation was that the enemy was so close 
to them (in fact, mingled with them) that he did 
not want them to know that there was a general 
in the crowd. 

Two days afterwards we got hold of one of the 
county papers, which, in giving the account of this 
attack, stated that the rebel, Gen. Wm. E. Jones, 
was captured. Perhaps but for the shrewdness of 
Gen. Wm. E. Jones in having his men call him 
"Bill" instead of "General," it might have been 
true. The firing among the horses attached to the 
wagons that had gone out on the open pike fright- 
ened them to such an extent that they were stam- 
peded, and we saw the next morning as we rode 
along that some of the wagons had tumbled over 
the precipice on the right, carrying with them the 
horses; also the wounded soldiers that were riding 
in the wagons. 

The retreat was continued all the next day, the 
enemy's cavalry attacking us whenever they could, 
but without effect. 

When we reached the river we found that our 
pontoon bridge had been partly swept away by the 
flood caused by the storm I have just spoken of. 
There was nothing to do but make a stand until the 



I08 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

bridge could be repaired, or until the river should 
fall sufficiently to allow us to ford it. 

My recollection is that we remained on that side 
of the river about a week. In the meantime the 
whole Northern army gathered in our front and 
threatened us with destruction, but they seemed 
to be as afraid of us as we were of them; for 
instead of attacking us, they began to throw up 
breastworks in their front to protect themselves 
from attack. This greatly encouraged us, and even 
the privates in the ranks were heard to remark, 
''We're in no danger, they're afraid of us; look at 
their breastworks." 

iBy the time the bridge was restored the river had 
fallen sufficiently to allow the cavalry to ford it. 
The army leisurely crossed, the infantry, artillery 
and wagons crossing on the bridge, while the cav- 
alry waded through the water. The passage was 
made at night. 

Gen. Meade, who commanded the Northern 
army, was very much censured for not attacking 
Lee while he was on the north side of the river. 
The Government at Washington seemed to think it 
would have resulted in the surrender of his army; 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 109 

but wc in the ranks on the Confederate side had no 
fear of such a disaster. 

It is true, we were short of ammunition, but the 
infantry had the bayonet and the cavalry the sabre, 
and we felt satisfied that we were not in much 
danger. 

I neglected to say that as we marched through the 
towns of Pennsylvania it was distressing to see the 
sad faces of the populace as they gathered at their 
front doors and windows watching us as we moved 
through their streets. It resembled a funeral, at 
which all the people were mourners. 

It was so different when we were marching 
through the cities and towns of the South. There 
we were greeted by the people with waving flags 
and smiling faces. Another thing we noticed which 
was quite different from what we witnessed in our 
own land was a great number of young men be- 
tween the ages of 18 and 45 in citizens' clothes. 
This had a rather depressing effect upon us, because 
it showed us that the North had reserves to draw 
from, while our men, within the age limit, were all 
in the army. 

It is said that misfortunes never come singly. 

No sooner had we reached the south bank of the 



no FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Potomac than wc heard the distressing news that 
Vicksburg had fallen. This opened the Mississippi 
river to Farragut's fleet of warships stationed at the 
mouth of that river, and cut the Confederacy in 
two. 

Then disaster followed disaster in that part of the 
field; but as I said in the beginning, I am not writ- 
ing a history of the war, and hence will not attempt 
to follow the movements of the Western armies. 

The question is often asked, "Why did Gen. Lee 
take his army into Pennsylvania?" I might answer 
for the same reason that the children of Israel 
went down into Egypt. There was a famine in the 
land, and they went there for corn. Food was 
growing scarcer and scarcer in the South, and it 
became a serious question not only as to how the 
army was to be fed, but also the citizens at home, 
the old men, women and children. 

No supplies could be brought from beyond the 
Mississippi. Tennessee and Kentucky were in the 
hands of the enemy; a great portion of Virginia, in 
fact, the richest farming sections were ravished 
first by one army, then by the other, making it im- 
possible for the farmers to put in their grain or reap 
their harvests. 



no FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Potomac than wc heard the distressing news that 
Vicksburg had fallen. This opened the Mississippi 
river to Farragut's fleet of warships stationed at the 
mouth of that river, and cut the Confederacy in 
two. 

Then disaster followed disaster in that part of the 
field ; but as I said in the beginning, I am not writ- 
ing a history of the war, and hence will not attempt 
to follow the movements of the Western armies. 

The question is often asked, "Why did Gen. Lee 
take his army into Pennsylvania?" I might answer 
for the same reason that the children of Israel 
went down into Egypt. There was a famine in the 
land, and they went there for corn. Food was 
growing scarcer and scarcer in the South, and it 
became a serious question not only as to how the 
army was to be fed, but also the citizens at home, 
the old men, women and children. 

No supplies could be brought from beyond the 
Mississippi. Tennessee and Kentucky were in the 
hands of the enemy; a great portion of Virginia, in 
fact, the richest farming sections were ravished 
first by one army, then by the other, making it im- 
possible for the farmers to put in their grain or reap 
their harvests. 







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FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. Mil 

The other States of the South grew mostly cot- 
ton and tobacco. All the Southern ports were 
closely blockaded; hence the problem of sustaining 
human life was growing more serious every day. 

If Gen. Lee had been successful at the battle of 
Gettysburg his army would have remained north of 
the Potomac until late in the fall, and would have 
subsisted upon the country surrounding his camps. 
At the same time, the farmers on the eastern side 
of the Blue Ridge and in the rich Valley of Vir- 
ginia could have planted and reaped an abundant 
harvest, which would have sufficed to take care 
of man and beast during the long winter months; 
but Providence ruled otherwise, and Lee was com- 
pelled to move his army back and provide for it as 
best he could. 

Another question has been as often asked: 
"Why was Lee not successful at Gettysburg?" 
Gen. Lee seemed to have anticipated this question, 
and answered it in language almost divine when he 
said, "It was all my fault." He hoped this would 
have quieted criticism, but it did not, and for forty- 
odd years critics have been trying to fix the blame 
on someone. 



112 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Of course, I cannot solve the problem, but I 
would suggest this: Gen. Lee could not take the 
risk at Gettysburg that he took when he fought his 
other battles. He was too far from his base of sup- 
plies. If he had been defeated at Seven Pines, 
Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellors- 
ville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, 
he would have had the defences of Richmond to 
fall back upon, but not so at Gettysburg. If he 
should be defeated there he must retain an army 
strong enough to cut through the lines of the enemy, 
in order to reach his base of supplies. 

After three days' fighting at Gettysburg he had 
gone as far as he dared go toward the depletion of 
his men and supplies; hence he ordered a retreat, 
knowing that he was still strong enough to handle 
the enemy and reach the south bank of the Potomac. 

Some say it was because Jackson was not there; 
but the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and 
Cold Harbor, where Grant was in command of the 
Northern army, demonstrated that Lee could win 
victories without Jackson. Perhaps what contrib- 
uted most to Lee's defeat at Gettysburg was the 
absence of the cavalry just at a time when he needed 
it most. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. II3 

Whatever may have been the cause of his defeat, 
Gen. Lee, with the magnanimity characteristic of 
him, said: "It was all my fault." 

I am sure that my old comrades of the Sixth Vir- 
ginia Cavalry will be disappointed if I do not say 
something more about the part our regiment took, 
in the battle of Gettysburg. On the last day of the 
battle (July 3) we were on the extreme right of 
Lee's army, and while Gen. Lee was intently watch- 
ing Gen. Pickett's division in the effort to crush the 
center of the Union army, the Sixth Virginia Cav- 
alry, near Fairfield, in a hand-to-hand conflict, was 
trying to annihilate the force in their front, namely, 
the Sixth United States Regular Cavalry. Not- 
withstanding the tall wheat just ready for the 
scythe through which we charged and the strong 
post and rail fences in our way, we defeated this 
regiment and captured 200 prisoners. Among the 
slain on our side was our adjutant (Allen), a most 
efficient officer. It was here that a bullet cut my 
coat across the shoulder. Our regiment and this 
regiment met face to face several times during the 
war, and once they had the pleasure of escorting 
quite a large detachment of our regiment to the 
rear as prisoners, myself among them. Our rela- 
tions grew quite cordial as we became acquainted. 



Chapter VII. 

From Gettysburg to the Wilderness, 

"But who shall break the guards that wait 

Before the awful face of Fate? 
The tattered standards of the South 
Were shrivelled at the cannon's mouth. 

And all her hopes were desolate." 

The main army marched slowly back up the val- 
ley, crossing at the various gaps east of Winchester, 
and occupied a position on the south bank of the 
Rapidan, a branch of the Rappahannock. 

The cavalry under Stuart took the east side of the 
Blue Ridge and marched in a parallel line with the 
infantry. This took me by my old home. I could 
stop only for a few minutes. I remember that I 
was upbraided for my appearance and was com- 
pared to the "Prodigal Son." But when I told 
them what I had passed through, they were ready 
to kill the fatted calf. I had, though, no time for 
this, as my regiment was on the march. Besides, 
I knew there was no calf. 

The enemy kept at a safe distance, and did not 
molest us. We halted at Brandy Station, where we 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. II5 

had fought the battle of June 9th, a month before. 
They halted at the Rappahannock and occupied 
both sides of the river. 

While resting in this camp Gen. Lee issued the 
following order to his army: 

"Headquarters Army Northern Virginia, 

"August 13, 1863. 
"The President of the Confederate States has, in the name of the 
people, appointed August 21st as a day of fasting, humiliation and 
prayer. A strict observance of the day is enjoined upon the officers 
and soldiers of this army. All military duties, except such as are 
absolutely necessary, will be suspended. The commanding officers 
of the brigades and regiments are requested to cause divine services, 
suitable to the occasion, to be performed in their respective com- 
mands. Soldiers ! we have sinned against Almighty God. We have 
forgotten His signal mercies, and have cultivated a revengeful, 
haughty and boastful spirit. We have not remembered that the de- 
fenders of a just cause should be pure in His eyes; that 'our times 
are in His hands,' and we have relied too much on our own arms 
for the achievement of our independence. God is our only refuge 
and our strength. Let us humble ourselves before Him. Let us 
confess our many sins, and beseech Him to give us a higher courage, 
a purer patriotism and more determined will ; that He will convert 
the hearts of our enemies ; that He will hasten the time when war, 
with its sorrows and sufferings, shall cease, and that He will give us 
a name and place among the nations of the earth. 

"R. E. Lee, General." 

This order was printed on paper about the size 
of a half sheet note paper, and was read to the com- 
panies by their respective commanders. It made a 
deep impression upon the army. 

The land for miles and miles around Brandy 
Station was almost level and entirely denuded of 
fences, the soldiers having used them for firewood. 
It was an ideal battlefield. 



Il6 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Here was the home of John Minor Botts, a dis- 
tinguished Virginian, respected and protected by 
the Northern army for his Union sentiments, and 
by the South for his integrity. He had a beautiful 
home and a fine, large estate, a choice herd of milch 
cows, and I have often gone there at milking time 
and got my canteen filled with milk just from the 
cow. 

The price we paid was 25 cents a quart, in Con- 
federate money. We thought it very cheap for 
such good, rich milk, and all of us had a good word 
to say for Mr. Botts and his family, even if they 
were Unionists. 

Gen. Stuart threw out his pickets across the 
fields, and just in front of us the enemy did likewise. 
The pickets were in full view of each other, and a 
long-range musket might have sent a bullet across 
the line at any time, but we did not molest each 
other. At night the lines came still closer together, 
and we could distinctly hear them relieving their 
pickets every two hours, and they doubtless could 
hear us doing the same. 

This state of things remained for several weeks. 
Not a shot was fired during all that time, and so 
well acquainted did the pickets of each army be- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. II7 

come, that it was not an uncommon thing to see 
them marching across the fields to meet each other 
and exchange greetings, and often the Confederates 
traded tobacco for coffee and sugar. I took quite 
an interest in this bartering and trading. This got 
to be so common that Gen. Stuart had to issue an 
order forbidding it. 

After a while conditions changed. Gen. Lee 
had sent Longstreet's corps to Tennessee to rein- 
force Bragg, weakening his army to the extent of 
15,000 men. Probably for this reason the enemy 
determined to make a demonstration, and began a 
movement toward our front. But so considerate 
were they that they did not open fire on us until we 
had gotten beyond range of their guns. This fra- 
ternal condition perhaps never existed before be- 
tween two contending armies. 

As they advanced we gradually fell back, and 
when we had retreated about a mile, they began 
firing on us. The friendly sentiment was soon dis- 
sipated, we returned the fire, and began to dis- 
pute their passage. But as they had a much larger 
force we gradually released the territory, fighting 
as we retreated. 
My part of the line carried me directly through 



Il8 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

the Streets of Culpeper, and the fighting in and 
around the town was the heaviest that we encount- 
ered. Several of our men had their horses killed, 
and I saw the enemy's cavalry pick the men up as 
they ran in their effort to escape. 

The average soldier's ambition is to be in every 
battle with his regiment, but after the first volley 
he is willing to retire if he can honorably do so. A 
slight wound or a crippled horse or assisting a 
wounded comrade will give him a passport to the 
rear. We were in line, facing the enemy's batteries, 
when a shower of grape shot, striking the ground in 
front, threw gravel in our faces, one of which struck 
one of the horses on the nose, causing him to squirm 
greatly. The rider quickly called out, "Captain, 
my horse is wounded; can I go to the rear?" To 
avoid teasing, he got transferred to another com- 
mand. He is still living and so is the joke, much to 
his discomfort. 

We retreated to the Rapidan, where Gen. Lee 
was strongly entrenched. The enemy, after re- 
maining in our front a few days, fell back to their 
old position on the Rappahannock. 

Shortly after this demonstration of the Union 
army, Gen. Lee made an advance, but not directly 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. II9 

in front. He moved his army toward the northeast, 
and his efforts seemed to have been to make a flank 
movement and get in the enemy's rear, just as had 
been done the year before when Jackson got in the 
rear of Pope at Manassas. The cavalry remained 
to watch the enemy's front, and prevent a move to- 
ward Richmond. 

After Lee had got well on his march the cav- 
alry crossed the river and began to drive in the 
enemy's outposts and press them back toward Cul- 
peper, and then on through Culpeper to Brandy 
Station, where the enemy made a stand. 

A short distance beyond the station was a slight 
elevation running across our front, completely hid- 
ing the movements of the enemy. As there was no 
elevation anywhere that we might occupy and see 
beyond the ridge in our front, all we could see was 
the large force occupying the crest of the ridge. 
We were afraid to charge, for fear of running into 
their whole army. 

After a good deal of maneuvering and waiting 
we saw the long lines of Union cavalry coming over 
the ridge and moving toward us in the line of battle. 
Closer and closer they came, and when they got 
within 200 yards of us, their leader ordered a 



:i20 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

charge, and it looked as if the whole column was 
coming right into our ranks. 

I have a vivid recollection of the scene. I no- 
ticed as they approached that quite a number of 
them, perhaps every third man, was reining in his 
horse, which meant, **I have gone as far as I mean 
to go." Of course, what I saw my comrades saw, 
and we knew at once, by this action, they were 
whipped; but the others came on, dashing right 
into our ranks, firing as they came. The dust and 
smoke from the guns made it almost impossible to 
distinguish friend from foe, but I noticed close to 
me a large Union officer, riding a splendid horse, 
with his sabre over his head, calling his men to 
follow him. I had my sabre drawn, and I raised it 
over his head, but did not have the heart to hit 
him. Somehow or other, my arm would not obey 
me. It seemed too much like murder. 

But Lieutenant (an officer in my com- 
pany) was not so chicken-hearted; he spurred 
his horse forward until his pistol almost touched 
the officer, and shot him in the side. I saw him 
fall from his horse and afterward attempt to get 
up. Then I lost sight of him. It was said to be 
Gen. Baker of the Union army, who was in com- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 121 

mand of the forces making the attack. We took 
some prisoners; others in the confusion, amid the 
dust and smoke, fled and escaped within their own 
lines. Then there was a halt for an hour or more. 

Several fresh regiments of our cavalry came up 
and took positions, ready for attack or defence, 
whichever it might be. 

What troubled our command was to know what 
was beyond that ridge. We were afraid to move 
forward, for fear of running into ambush. 

Presently we saw a magnificent sight. The col- 
onel of the Fifth Virginia Regiment, mounted 
on a beautiful black horse, moved forward, calling 
upon his regiment to follow him. It was Colonel, 
afterward General, Rosser. 

As the regiment moved toward the enemy's lines, 
at a gallop, the cry went up and down the ranks, 
"Look at Rosserl Look at Rosser!" Everybody ex- 
pected to see him tumble from his horse, shot to 
death. But he went forward, leading his men, and 
when the enemy discovered that we were coming in 
earnest, they turned on their heels and fled. Other 
regiments followed in rapid succession, and when 
we reached the top of the ridge we found that the 
enemy were disappearing in the distance as fast 



122 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

as their flying horses could carry them. We after- 
ward learned that their stand at Brandy Station 
was only intended to check our forces until theirs 
could get across the Rappahannock river, about 
three miles distant. 

After this fracas was over we began to look 
about us to see whether any of us showed marks of 
the strife. I found a bullet hole through the strap 
that held my sabre to my belt, and as the strap lay 
close to my side, it was allowed to pass as a "close 
shave." But the greatest danger I had been in, I 
think, was from the sabre of Gen. Baker. A right 
cut from that strong arm of his could have severed 
my head. 

There was one of our command who was shot in 
the neck, and an artery cut. The blood spurted 
out like water from a spigot. He dismounted and 
stood by his horse until, weakened by the loss of 
blood, he fell to the ground. He realized, as every- 
one else did, that he was beyond human aid. As 
Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes, "The golden bowl 
had been broken." 

But to go back. Early in the day, when we were 
driving the enemy from our front, the cavalry dis- 
mounted and fought on foot. This was often done, 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 23 

as the men can do better execution when on the 
ground, and, besides, they are better protected from 
the fire of the enemy. On foot, you have to protect 
you the trees and the rocks and the fences, every lit- 
tle hillock; in fact, anything else that would stop a 
bullet, but on horseback you are a splendid target 
for the sharpshooter. Hence, the cavalry on some 
occasions preferred to be on foot. But when there 
was any retreating to do, like Richard III, they 
wanted a horse. 

On this particular occasion I was among those 
chosen to lead the horses. In fact, it always fell to 
the fourth man. He sat on his horse, while the 
other three men dismounted and went to the front. 
These were called the led horses, and, of course, 
they followed in the rear, keeping as much out of 
danger as possible. 

As we moved along through the fields we passed 
a small dwelling; I halted in front of the door and 
asked the good lady of the house for something to 
eat. She came out, trembling from head to foot, 
with two other ladies, who I presume were her 
daughters, and gave me some bread. 

Seeing the long string of led horses, she asked in 
the most distressed tone if all the men belonging 



124 F^OM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

to those horses had been killed. I explained the 
meaning of the horses being led, and assured her 
they were in no danger, as the enemy was retreating 
rapidly in our front, and all danger had passed. 

Just an hour before this the conditions were re- 
versed. I was on foot, and on the firing line, and 
another was leading my horse. 

We had taken shelter behind a low-railed fence, 
against which the Yankees, who had just left it, had 
thrown the earth as a protection. We were all ly- 
ing down close to the ground and firing over the top 
of this obstruction, when a shell came hissing across 
the field, striking the breastwork a short distance 
from where I lay, scattering the rails and dirt in 
every direction. I remarked that as lightning 
never struck twice in the same place, that was the 
safest spot to get, and I began to crawl toward it. 
I had hardly moved a yard when another shell 
struck in this very same spot, verifying the old 
adage, that "there are exceptions to all rules." 

We were ordered to move forward from this 
position across the open field, which we did, the 
bullets buzzing past our ears like so many bees. 
We went a few hundred yards and then lay down 
flat on the ground in the grass, and continued firing 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 125 

at the puffs of smoke in our front, as that was all 
we could see. The enemy was lying as flat to the 
ground as we were. A great deal of this kind of 
fighting is done in this way. It doesn't rise to the 
dignity of a battle, but is called skirmishing. 

One poor fellow lying next to me was struck by 
a bullet with a dull thud, that caused him to cry 
out in pain, and as we moved forward I saw him 
writhing in agony. I presume he was not mortally 
wounded, as mortal wounds do not cause much or 
any pain. 

In the meantime, our enemy crept away from our 
front, and mounting their horses, galloped off. We 
followed in hot pursuit. 

But to return to where we left our friends (the 
enemy crossing the Rappahannock). We did not 
pursue them beyond the river, but moved northeast, 
crossing the river at the same place where we had 
crossed on the march to Gettysburg. It was about 
9 o'clock at night; beyond we could see all the hills 
brilliantly illuminated with camp-fires. It was a 
gorgeous spectacle. 

As we had driven the enemy across the river a 
few miles below, of course we in the ranks con- 
cluded that these were the camp-fires of the enemy. 



126 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

and that a night attack was to be made upon their 
camp. But we crossed, notwithstanding, and as we 
rode up to the blazing fires we discovered that we 
were right in the midst of Lee's infantry. 

We went into camp for the night. Early in the 
morning we were in the saddle, with both cavalry 
and infantry on the march. Marching parallel to 
us was the whole Union army. They were making 
for the defenses of Washington, and we were trying 
to cut them off. 

When we got as far as Bristoe Station, not far 
from Manassas, Gen. Lee made a swoop down upon 
them and tried to bring them to battle, but they 
were too swift for us. We did, however, have quite 
a severe fight at Bristoe Station between the ad- 
vance guard of our army and the rear of the enemy. 

Gen. A. P. Hill, commanding one of Lee's corps, 
made the attack. It was very severe while it lasted, 
and the roar of the musketry was terrific. But the 
enemy got away. 

After it was over one of my company (Frank 
Peak) heard Gen. Lee severely reprimand Gen. 
A. P. Hill in these words: "Gen. Hill, your line 
was too short and thin." I presume Gen. Lee 
thought if Gen. Hill had extended his line farther 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 27 

out, he might have captured the entire force in our 
front. 

In this battle Rev. A. W. Green (to whom I have 
already referred as being captured at Harper's 
Ferry by Jackson) had one of his fingers shot off. 
I have often joked him and said it was I who shot 
it ofT. Just as I am writing this Mr. Green, whom 
I had not seen for 10 years, came into my office, 
and I told him what I was doing. He held up his 
hand, minus one finger, and said, "Yes, you did 
that." 

We followed the retreating enemy some distance 
below Manassas, but could not overtake them. We 
halted for a while, and a few days afterward the 
whole army, cavalry, infantry and artillery, march- 
ed slowly back toward the Rapidan. 

The expedition was fruitless. The infantry, as 
is nearly always the case, marched with the wagon- 
trains, while the cavalry, in nearly every instance, 
leaves the wagons behind, depending upon what- 
ever can be picked up from the farmers or the 
enemy. 

In this particular section at this time, the farmers 
had no chance to plant crops. The trees had al- 
ready been stripped of fruit. We could not even 



128 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

find a persimmon, and wc suffered terribly with 
hunger. Of course, there was plenty of grass for 
the horses, but the men were entirely destitute of 
provisions. 

We were looking forward to Manassas with 
vivid recollections of the rich haul that we had 
made there just prior to the second battle of Manas- 
sas, and everybody was saying, "We'll get plenty 
when we get to Manassas." We were there be- 
fore we knew it. Everything was changed. There 
was not a building anywhere. The soil, enriched 
by the debris from former camps, had grown a rich 
crop of weeds that came half way up to the sides 
of our horses, and the only way we recognized the 
place was by our horses stumbling over the railroad 
tracks at the junction. It was a grievous disap- 
pointment to us. 

While fighting just below Manassas, the enemy 
threw a shell in among the led horses, which burst 
and killed several of them. 

A short time after that, while lying in camp, our 
stomachs crying bitterly for food, someone suggest- 
ed we try horse flesh. I remember pulling out my 
knife and sharpening it on a stone preparatory to 
cutting a steak from one of the dead horses, but just 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 29 

at this point a caravan on horseback arrived with a 
supply of food. We had a rich feast, and were 
happy again. 

I do not know where the Union army halted in 
their retreat toward Washington, but in a day or 
two after this, Lee moved his entire army back to- 
ward its old camp on the Rapidan, as I have just 
said. 

I think this was early in November. We felt 
winter approaching, and I remember when we 
reached the Rappahannock, although there was a 
bridge a mile below, the cavalry forded the stream, 
the men getting wet above their knees, as the water 
came well up to the sides of the horses. Gen. Lee, 
noticing that the men were wet from fording the 
river, said to our brigade commander (Gen. Lo- 
max) in a kind and fatherly tone, "My I general, you 
should have used the bridge below." I suppose 
Gen. Lomax thought that as we were soldiers we 
ought not to mind a little wetting, even if the cold 
November winds were blowing. 

My recollection is that the whole army, infantry, 
cavalry and artillery, encamped in and around 
Brandy Station and prepared for winter. The in- 
fantry began to build little low huts, the cracks 



130 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

filled up with mud and tops covered with slabs 
split from logs. 

Every mess had its own hut. The cavalry, know- 
ing that they would likely be kept on the march, 
made no preparation for winter. 

Some time after this (I can't remember just how 
long) orders came to break camp and move back on 
the south side of the Rapidan. I do not know what 
commotion this move caused in the ranks of the in- 
fantry, but we cavalrymen, who remained for some 
time in that neighborhood and saw the deserted 
villages, sympathized with the infantry in the loss 
of their homes. But like the Six Hundred, "Theirs 
not to reason why; theirs but to do and die." 

Shortly afterward the cavalry withdrew to the 
south bank of the Rapidan, near the infantry. I 
think this was in Orange county, near Orange 
Courthouse, probably half a mile from the river. 

Some time in January a courier came in from the 
front across the river and reported that the enemy's 
cavalry had been seen a few miles below, moving 
toward our camp. 

The bugles sounded "saddle up" all through the 
camp, and several regiments of cavalry were soon 
in line and crossing the river. They dismounted, 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 131 

formed in line of battle, and moved across the 
fields. We soon found the enemy in our front, also 
dismounted, and firing began. We were ordered to 
fall back gradually toward the river, fighting as 
we retreated, the object being to draw the enemy 
toward the batteries that were on the opposite side 
of the river. 

As we neared the banks of the river where the 
led horses were, our purpose was to remount and to 
cross the river, but the enemy pressed us so close 
that some of us, I among them, were compelled to 
cross on foot. This was rather a chilly experience, 
when you consider that it was the middle of Janu- 
ary. But we got over, and our batteries opened fire 
on the enemy and compelled them to fall back. 

Just as we came out of the river we met our in- 
fantry coming down and taking position behind the 
breastworks that had been thrown up along the 
south bank of the river. Those who had forded the 
river were allowed to go to camp, a short distance 
off, to dry their clothes, for it was freezing weather. 

I had mounted my horse, and as I passed the 
column of infantry coming down to the river, a 
bullet fired by the enemy's sharpshooter on the op- 
posite side struck one of the men, and he fell in a 



132 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

heap, dead, at the feet of my horse. He dropped as 
suddenly as if he had been taken by some powerful 
force and thrown violently to the ground. Every 
joint and muscle in his body seemed to have given 
way in an instant. 

After we had dried our clothes before the camp- 
fire our command re-crossed the river to find out 
what the enemy proposed to do. We were again 
dismounted and formed in line across the field as 
before, and, moving forward, found the enemy just 
beyond the reach of our batteries. Lying close to 
the ground we began firing at each other, continu- 
ing long after dark. Then the firing ceased. After 
remaining there for some time, someone in com- 
mand (I don't know who it was) ordered Capt. 
Gibson of our company to send four men with in- 
structions to creep up as near as they could to the 
enemy's lines, stay there, and report whenever the 
enemy withdrew. 

I was selected as one of the four men. When we 
got pretty near their line we got down flat on the 
ground, and like so many snakes crawled along until 
we got as close as we dared. We could distinctly 
see them on their horses, but we did not remain 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 33 

long before we saw them withdraw. We heard 
their ofTicers giving the command. 

We then came back, and had some difficulty get- 
ting in without being shot, from the fact that the 
regiment to which we belonged had been with- 
drawn and another put in its place, and the men 
did not seem to understand that we were out on this 
mission. We made our report, and shortly after- 
ward mounted, re-crossed the river and went into 
camp. It proved to be nothing more than a recon- 
noissance of the enemy's cavalry, probably to find 
out whether Lee's army was still encamped on the 
river. 

Some time after this, perhaps two or three weeks, 
while on picket a few miles up the river, a consider- 
able distance from the main army's encampment, 
a body of the enemy's cavalry crossed the river 
somewhere between the pickets, and got behind the 
line of pickets unobserved. 

It was a very foggy morning. Our post consisted 
of six men, and our position was a few hundred 
yards back of the river. 

Two of the men were on picket on the river 
bank; the others were at the post. 

About 6 o'clock in the morning we heard a few 



134 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

shots in our rear. One of our men was sent back to 
find out the cause of it. He had not been gone 
many minutes when we heard other shots, which 
forced us to the conclusion that the enemy in some 
way had gotten behind us. Our pickets had also 
heard the firing, and came in to find out what the 
trouble was. 

We followed the direction of the shots, and had 
not gone far before we saw through the heavy fog 
quite a large body of cavalry. 

Whether friend or foe, it was impossible to de- 
termine. So we thought discretion the better part 
of valor and immediately turned, each fellow tak- 
ing care of himself. 

Three went up the river. Faunt Neill and my- 
self took the opposite course. The Yankees (for 
it proved to be the enemy) had seen us, and started 
in pursuit. Neill and I rushed down the hill 
toward the river, passing a grove of small pine 
trees. My comrade turned abruptly to the right 
and hid himself in this sanctuary, while I contin- 
ued across the meadow and up the hill on the op- 
posite side into the woods and escaped. 

We all turned up in camp the next day except 
one. He had ridden straight into the enemy's lines, 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 35 

thinking they were Confederates. This ended his 
military career. 

I think it was about the first of February an order 
had been sent from headquarters allowing a cer- 
tain number of regiments a furlough. It extended 
to my regiment. Some of the companies could not 
avail themselves of it, because their homes were 
wholly in the territory occupied by the enemy. My 
company was among the fortunate ones, although 
many of our men were from Loudoun and Fau- 
quier, and the enemy was occupying part of this 
territory and making frequent raids through the 
other portions. But our officers stood sponsor for 
us, and we started for our respective homes as 
happy as children let out of school. 

Those of us living in Loudoun and Fauquier had 
to observe the greatest caution to keep from being 
picked up by the enemy's scouting cavalry before 
reaching home. But there were no misfortunes, 
and with joy unspeakable, we, one by one, reached 
our ''Old Homesteads." 

To attempt to express the pleasure we got out of 
this little vacation would tax the English language 
severely. 

'Tis true that these were not just the old homes 



136 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

we had left three years before in our bright new 
uniforms, with well-groomed horses and full haver- 
sacks. The marching and counter-marching of 
first one army, then the other, destroying fences and 
barns and driving off cattle and horses, made a great 
change in the appearance of things. 

No one attempted to keep up appearances. Be- 
sides, at this time, nearly every home mourned one 
or more dead. The most of my old schoolmates 
who had crossed the Potomac en route for Gettys- 
burg went down on that hot July afternoon when 
Pickett made his famous charge, for the Eighth 
Virginia Infantry, in which nearly all my school- 
mates had enlisted, was almost annihilated that 
bloody afternoon. 

Among the killed was Edwin Bailey, whom I 
have already mentioned as going out with me from 
Middleburg in the spring of 1862, he to rejoin his 
regiment, and I to enlist in the Sixth Virginia Cav- 
alry. By his side in that battle was his brother 
John. Edwin fell first, mortally wounded, and 
John, severely wounded, fell across him. Edwin 
said, "John, if you get home, tell them I died a 
Christian." These were his only and last words. 

I have often used this incident as an exemplifica- 
tion of the claims of Christianity. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 37 

Notwithstanding all this, we enjoyed our vaca- 
tion immensely, but there was not a day that 
we were not in danger of being surrounded and 
captured. The bluecoats were scouting through 
the country almost continuously in search of Mos- 
by's "gang," as they called it. We had to keep on 
guard and watch the roads and hilltops every hour 
of the day. We had the advantage of knowing the 
country and the hiding places and the short cuts, 
and then we had our loyal servants, always willing 
to aid us to escape "them Yankees." 

For instance, I made a visit to Sunny Bank, the 
home of my brother-in-law, E. C. Broun. My 
horse was hitched to the rack, and I was inside en- 
joying the hospitalities of an old Virginia home, 
when one of the little darkies rushed in and said, 
"Yankees." They were soon all around the house, 
but, before they got there, one of the servants took 
the saddle and bridle ofif my steed, hid them, and 
turned him loose in the garden, where he posed as 
the old family driving nag, while I went to the back 
porch, climbed a ladder, and lifting a trap-door, 
got in between the ceiling and the roof. The trap- 
door was so adjusted that it did not show an open- 
ing. The ladder was taken away, and there I stayed 



138 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

until the enemy departed. I got back home 
safely, and had other close calls, but escaped owing 
to the fidelity of the colored people, who were 
always on the watch, and whose loyalty to the 
Confederate soldiers, whether they belonged to the 
family in which they lived or not, was touching and 
beautiful beyond comprehension. They always 
called the Confederates "Our Soldiers," and the 
other side "Them Yankees." 

About this time a new star appeared upon the 
field of Mars. John S. Mosby, a native of, I think, 
Washington county, Virginia, serving as lieuten- 
ant in the First Virginia Cavalry, was captured 
and put in prison in Washington in the old Capitol. 
He was not there long before he was exchanged, 
but while there his mind was busy. He conceived 
the idea that if he had a small body of men well 
armed and well mounted, and given an independ- 
ent command, he could render the Confederacy 
great service by operating along the lines of the 
B. & O., the C. & O., and the Orange and Alexan- 
dria railroads, and also upon the enemy's supply 
trains, that were constantly moving to and fro up 
and down the valley and other sections. He re- 
ported his plan to Gen. Stuart when he got out of 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 39 

prison. Gen. Stuart favored it, and referred it to 
Gen. Lee, and Gen. Lee referred it to the War De- 
partment at Richmond, resulting in Mosby's being 
commissioned a captain, with ten men detached 
from his regiment (the First Virginia Cavalry) 
with permission to increase the number by recruit- 
ing from the young men in the district where he 
operated. 

Mosby lost no time in getting his little force to- 
gether at some point in Loudoun county. His first 
expedition was to Fairfax Courthouse. His plan 
was to get as close to the enemy as he could, hide 
his men behind a hill or in a body of timber, and 
rush pell-mell upon a passing wagon-train, or a de- 
tachment of Union troops, stampede them and cap- 
ture what he could. In this way he captured or de- 
stroyed a great many wagons, took horses, mules 
and prisoners by the thousands. My younger 
brother Richard joined this command in 1864, be- 
ing a little over 17 years old. 

It may now seem strange that a people whose 
country was devastated as this portion of Virginia 
was at this time, with so many homes mourning 
the loss of their brave sons slain in battle, or 
maimed for life, with starvation almost staring 



140 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

them in the face, with their capital besieged by- 
great armies, with what we would call at this 
day deprivation and suffering incomparable, could 
have any heart for festivities, such as dances and 
plays. But such was the fact. The soldiers during 
their furlough were received everywhere as heroes, 
and were banqueted and entertained as if peace 
and plenty reigned throughout the land. Many a 
parody like the following was made: "There was 
a sound of revelry by night, and Lee's miserables 
(Les miserables) had gathered there." 

But it must be remembered that it was this spirit 
among the Southern people that made them endure 
their hardships and sustain the conflict as long as 
they did. It was. the women standing loyally by 
their husbands, brothers and lovers that made the 
Southern soldiers ready to play or ready to fight, 
regardless of what they had in their haversacks or 
wore on their backs. 

There was no fixed time for our furlough, but we 
had places of rendezvous where we were ordered to 
meet once a week to receive instructions. Finally 
the time came when we were summoned to collect 
at Upperville (near the home of our captain) for 
the march back to the army. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 41 

I do not remember the date, but it was early in 
March. I do remember the first encampment 
we made for the night. We got up the next morn- 
ing with six inches of snow covering us, resulting in 
my horse's getting a bad cold, for during our fur- 
lough he had been housed in a warm stable. This 
cold never left him, and he died from the effects of 
it several months afterward. 

We were ordered to report at Staunton, Va. It 
was a long march from Loudoun county, but we 
were used to long marches. When we arrived 
we found our regiment awaiting us. With- 
out even a day's rest we were ordered to Rich- 
mond, a still longer march, and after remaining 
there two weeks we were ordered to Fredericks- 
burg. A line of this route drawn on the map would 
form almost a perfect letter C, and if it had not 
been for a small obstacle in our way, in all proba- 
bility we would have continued the march, forming 
the letter O. 

The obstacle in our way was Grant's army on the 
Rappahannock. 



Chapter VIII. 

From the JVilderness to James River. 

"Turning his bridle, Robert Lee 
Rode to the rear. Like waves of the sea, 
Bursting the dikes in their overflow, 
Madly his veterans dashed on the foe." 

The army of Northern Virginia had met and 
defeated McDowell, McClellan, Pope, Burnside 
and Hooker, and caused the displacement of 
JMeade. But the Government at Washington had 
at last found a soldier believed to be a full match 
for Gen. Lee. 

Grant had been successful in the West, and his 
achievements had made him the Nation's idol, so 
he was brought to the East and placed in command 
of the army of the Potomac. 

All during the late fall and winter and early 
spring he was preparing an immense army, whose 
rendezvous was on the Rappahannock and in the 
district about Culpeper Courthouse. It was a 
greater and better equipped army than that under 
McClellan in 1862. Then again, McClellan 
was an untried soldier, while Grant had won his 

ttt 




Mus. 1!. i:. i.Ki:, 



Wile ol' Kolx'it ll, l,i'<\ Kroiu an olil iihotomnph ImKimi .Iniiiii; lln- wiir. 

Tlu> spots arc llic rcsiili ><( (It-rcris on Ilir original pholoi;iapli, i-aiiscil liy 
tiuu>. 

"1 will luaUi- liini an liclp nicot for lilin." 

"'rill- lii;lit lipoii Ik'I- I'aco 
Sliinos I'roni llic w imlows ol' anollirr woiM." 




(iiONi'iKAL i:iii;i':irr lo. moI'). 

Tills picliirc \v;is hiUi'ii In llic nnr of (Iciiri-iil Lc^'s lionwi' (iii I'Miiilillii 
Slroi'f, lUrhliKirid, \'ii., In iscr,, liiinirdlii hl.v .-iricr his return Iroin A|)))o 
inatlox, ;in(l ifpirscnts lilni In llir slylr ol' nnHiprrji wlilrli lie hnhinnilly 
wore In I lii- mniy. 

"II vvuH 111! my fanll." ((jellysljurg.) 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. I43 

Spurs on more than one battlefield. So the North 
had a right to feel that Lee would be beaten and 
Richmond captured. Besides this great army, an- 
other 30,000 strong was marching up the James 
river, taking the same route McClclIan took two 
years before. 

Gen. Benj. F. Butler was its commander. The 
two armies were to unite and compel the surrender 
or evacuation of the Confederate Capital. 

It was May 4, 1864, when Grant began his 
movements toward Lee's front. At this time the 
whole cavalry force of Gen. Lee was encamped 
in a rich grazing district about five miles from 
Fredericksburg. 

We had been there several weeks, our horses had 
been wading in grass up to their knees. They had 
shed their winter coats, and were looking fine, and 
seemed to be ready for the fray. 

Our principal article of food was fresh fish, 
caught from the Rappahannock river. 

As we loitered around the camp from day to day, 
speculating as to when we should be called to the 
front, and discussing what would be the result of 
the coming battle, we began to get restless, as sol- 
diers will. They live on excitement, and the boom- 



144 FROM BULL RUN TO APrOMATTOX. 

ing of guns and the rattling of musketry is the 
sweetest music they can hear. 

One bright May morning (it must have been 
about the third day of the month) we saw a courier 
with his horse all llcckcd with foam come dasliing 
into our camp. He halted and asked tor Gen. 
Stuart's headquarters. It proved to be a messenger 
from Gen. Lee, and it meant that the deatli-struggle 
was about to begin. 

Soon the bu<i;les were soundincr all throue:h the 
camps the old familiar call, "Saddle up, saddle up." 
We mounted, and each company forming in line 
and counting olT by fours, wheeled into columns of 
two and marched off toward what was afterwards 
known as the Battlefield of the Wilderness. 

We arrived at the position assigned us about 
dark, where we went into camp in the woods, tying 
our horses to the trees and building camp-fires to 
cook our supper, I had (like the boy in the parable 
of the loaves and fishes) in my haversack a few 
small fresh fish, and I was wondering whether they 
would be sweet or not. I remember distinctly lay- 
ing them on the coals of lire to broil. It has been 
43 years since then, but I assure you 1 can almost 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 145 

taste those fish today. I don't think I ever ate any- 
thing so sweet. 

Tiic next day we were in the saddle early. The 
cavalry formed the right wing of Lee's army. The 
battle lasted two days. The cavalry fought almost 
entirely on foot. It was mostly in heavy timber and 
thick undergrowth. 

The first day we did not see the enemy, but we 
knew he was there, for the woods were ringing with 
the sound of his guns, and bullets were hissing 
about our ears. 

When we struck this heavy body of timber we 
found a narrow road running through it. We fol- 
lowed this road cautiously for two or three miles. 
My company was in front. About 200 yards in 
front of the company rode two soldiers, side by 
side. We knew somewhere in front of us was the 
enemy, and it was our mission to find him. Sud- 
denly we heard two shots — pop, pop. We all knew 
what that meant. The armies of Lee and Grant had 
met, and as far as I know, these were the first two 
shots fired of the Battle of the Wilderness. They had 
come from the enemy's guns. They had seen our 
advance guard, and the shots meant, "so far shall 



146 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

thou come, and no farther." We took the hint and 
halted. 

The regiment was dismounted, and the led horses 
were taken back some distance; we deployed 
on the right and left of the road and awaited re- 
sults; then moved forward until we discovered the 
enemy's line. We exchanged some shots, and 
began falling slowly back, while they advanced. 

As we retired, their bullets were hissing through 
our ranks and cutting the bark from the trees and 
the twigs from the bushes, and now and then strik- 
ing down our men. 

My cousin, Dallas Leith, and myself stood to- 
gether behind a tree for protection. As he fired, 
his head was exposed, and a bullet from the enemy's 
ranks just brushed his lips. He turned to me 
and said, "Wasn't that a close shave?" At the same 
time a bullet grazed my finger as I fired. 

We fell back through the timber to the edge of 
the open fields, and getting behind a rail fence, re- 
mained there until the enemy came up. We held 
our fire until they got close to us, when we poured a 
volley into their ranks that sent them scurrying 
back through the woods. We then climbed the 
fence and followed them. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 47 

About 20 Steps from the fence we saw two Yan- 
kees lying mortally wounded. We gathered around 
them and asked them some questions about where 
they were from, and one of our men pulled a pho- 
tograph from the pocket of one of them. It was a 
picture of a young girl, and one of the men said, '-'I 
guess that's his sweetheart." He opened his eyes 
and said with much difficulty, "No, it is my sister." 
Our captain was standing by, and as the men were 
so close to our line, someone conceived the idea that 
they had come up to surrender, and one of them said 
to our captain, "Captain, these men came up to 
surrender, and were shot down." One of the Yan- 
kees denied the accusation with some feeling. They 
were both shot in the breast, and were bleeding pro- 
fusely. It was very evident that they had but a 
short time to live. 

The captain ordered them to be taken back to a 
place of safety. They begged to remain where they 
were, saying that they hadn't long to live, but they 
were taken back to a safer place. 

We were again ordered forward, and kept on 
until we came in touch with the enemy, when the 
firing was resumed. 

Dallas Leith and myself were again behind a 



148 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

tree. He was kneeling down loading his gun, when 
his head was again exposed, and a ball struck him 
in the forehead. It tore away a part of the bone, 
exposing his brain. I felt confident the boy was 
killed, and had no other thought than that of leav- 
ing him there, for we had all we could do to carry 
back the wounded, much less the dead. 

We were then ordered to fall back, and someone 
more humane than I proposed that we carry his 
body back with us. I protested that it was impos- 
sible, but the others insisted, and, tying a handker- 
chief around his head, his hair drenched with 
blood, we picked him up and carried him 
back about a mile, when to our surprise we 
got iffto a road and there found an ambulance. 
Putting him in it, he was carried to the hos- 
pital, in the rear. Strange to say, he lived about 
ten days, giving his father time to come from Lou- 
doun county to see him before he died. About this 
same time his younger brother Henry (at home) 
was blown to pieces by a shell that he had picked 
up in the field on his father's farm. He was trying 
to open it, to see what was inside. 

But to return to the battle. This state of things 
continued for two whole days, with little intermis- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 49 

sion. Sometimes, however, there was not a shot 
fired for an hour. 

During one of these intervals I remember sitting 
down, leaning my back against a large tree, and be- 
gan writing a letter to my folks at home. Capt. 
Gibson came up to mc and said, "Young man, if 
you don't want to get shot, you'd better get on the 
other side of that tree, for somewhere just in front 
of us, and not a great distance off, is the enemy's 
skirmish line, and they may open fire at any mo- 
ment." I moved behind the tree and resumed my 
writing, but was suddenly stopped by the sound of 
firing in our front, that caused us to creep farther 
back into the woods. 

A little later we had fallen back out of the 
timber into the open fields, and were firing from 
behind a fence at the enemy in the woods, whom we 
could not see for the undergrowth. Our attention 
was called to a large body of cavalry on our left, 
apparently the enemy on mischief bent. 

There are times in a battle when every private 
soldier on the firing line becomes a "Commander- 
in-Chief." It is when orders cannot be given, or 
would not be heard if they were. Each soldier 



150 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

seems to know intuitively what to do, and the whole 
line acts in concert. 

At this particular time the body of cavalry on 
our left proved to be the bluecoats, moving toward 
our rear. It did not take long for the information 
to spread up and down the line, and at once every 
man in the ranks, in absence of any orders from 
headquarters, concluded that the thing to do was to 
fall back. So each soldier gave the order to him- 
self, and quicker than it takes time to tell it, the line 
was moving back over the fields. 

We had retreated perhaps 200 yards when the 
movement was noticed by Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. He 
came galloping toward us on his white horse, and 
with a voice that could be heard above the shots of 
the guns, he said, "What does this m.ean?" In re- 
ply, hundreds of hands pointed toward the enemy 
on our left, and some voices said, "They're getting 
in our rear." Gen. Lee said, "Tut, tut, tut; go 
back, go back." And without a word every man 
wheeled around and started back for the position 
he had left. Gen. Lee perhaps knew that there 
were forces enough there to take care of the enemy, 
who, as we saw it, was getting behind us. 

As I said before, this kind of warfare continued 




GENERAL FITZnUGH LEE, 

Who comm.indcd a division of Stuart's Cavalry. 

'What does this mean? Go back ! go hark!" (See page 150.) 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 151 

for two days, and all the time it was going on wc 
could hear the booming of the artillery on our left, 
telling us that Grant was doing all he could to beat 
back or break through Lee's lines, and we knew, 
too, that he was not accomplishing his purpose. We 
could always tell which way the battle was going 
by the direction from which the sound came. 

The night of the third day Grant silently and 
rapidly withdrew the main portion of his army 
from Lee's front and marched toward Spottsyl- 
vania Courthouse, which was some distance to the 
right of where the cavalry was fighting. 

His object was to surprise Gen. Lee, and get be- 
tween him and Richmond. But Gen. Lee had an- 
ticipated that very movement, and when Grant's 
infantry moved forward at Spottsylvania Court- 
house, he found Lee's army there confronting him. 
Then began the bloodiest battle of all the war, so 
it is said. 

It was during the Battle of the Wilderness that 
Gen. Grant sent that famous dispatch to Washing- 
ton, 'T will fight it out on this line if it takes all 
summer." If he meant the line between his army 
and Lee's, he changed his mind within 24 hours. 
But if he meant a line stretching from the Wilder- 



152 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

ness to Petersburg, he kept his word. It took him 
all summer to get his army south of the James river, 
and cost him the loss (it is said) of 100,000 soldiers. 

He could have placed his army there without 
firing a shot by following the route taken by Mc- 
Clellan, but Grant well knew he must first cripple 
Lee's army before he could capture Richmond, and 
that he could afford to lose five men to Lee's one 
in doing it, and I presume he thought the district 
called the "Wilderness" a good place to begin the 
work. 

While Grant's army was moving under the cover 
of night and the dense forests toward Spottsylvania 
Courthouse, our cavalry also moved in the same 
direction. And when Grant ordered his lines for- 
ward the next morning, the first to receive them was 
our cavalry. 

The enemy's cavalry still confronted us when we 
began fighting. It seemed to be the same old tac- 
tics that had been played for the last two days, ex- 
cept that it was a little fiercer. 

Among the killed that day was a handsome young 
colonel of one of the regiments of our brigade. His 
name was Collins, a native of Pennsylvania and a 
West Pointer, who had married a Virginia girl. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 53 

He was always dressed as if he were going to a 
reception. His complexion was as fair as a 
woman's. His hair was light. He habitually wore 
a clean white collar and a bright new uniform 
(something unusual among soldiers in the midst 
of an active campaign), but "death loves a shining 
mark," and he was taken off. 

About 10 o'clock in the morning our cavalry was 
withdrawn from the front, and going back to our 
led horses we mounted and slowly rode back to- 
ward Spottsylvania Courthouse. 

The country here was different from where we 
had been fighting the two days previous. Much of 
it was open fields, and the timbered part of it was 
not encumbered with undergrowth. 

As we slowly fell back we looked behind us and 
saw a gorgeous sight. It was Grant's line of battle 
moving forward as if on "Dress Parade," their 
brass buttons and steel guns with fixed bayonets 
glistening in the sun, their banners floating in 
the breeze. The first thought among the private 
soldiers was, "Has Grant stolen a march on Lee, 
and is Richmond doomed?" It certainly looked 
so at this moment, but we kept on falling back. 

A,s we entered the woods we suddenly came upon 



154 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Lee's infantry lying down in line of battle waiting 
the enemy's advance. As we approached them, 
word was passed up and down the line not to cheer 
the infantry. This was the custom in the face of a 
battle when the cavalry, retiring from the front, 
gave way to the infantry. 

They opened their ranks and let us pass through, 
and we formed in line some distance behind them. 
The infantry was entirely concealed from the 
enemy's view, and up to this time I am quite sure 
that Grant did not know that he was facing Lee's 
army at Spottsylvania Courthouse. But he was 
soon to be undeceived in a manner most tragic. 

Lee's infantry waited until the enemy was within 
100 yards, and then, rising to their feet, poured a 
volley into their ranks that brought many of them 
to the ground, and sent the others back from whence 
they came. This was only the beginning of the 
battle. 

Leaving the infantry to take care of that part of 
the field, the cavalry was moved a mile to the right 
and again dismounted, and moved forward until 
we came under fire of the enemy's guns. We lay 
down behind a rail fence and fired between the 
rails. A bullet struck a rail just in front of my head 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 55 

and knocked the dust and splinters in my face, al- 
most blinding me for a little while. We did not 
remain there very long, but were soon ordered 
back, and as we moved across the open fields in full 
view of the enemy, they kept up an incessant fire, 
many of the shots taking effect. 

We could see the Union oflicers on the little hills 
in every direction, with their field glasses to their 
eyes, trying to discover what was in front of them. 

The cavalry retired from the field, leaving the 
infantry to do the rest. How well it was done the 
historian has tragically told the world. It was on 
this field that "Hancock, the superb," made eight 
distinct attacks on Lee's center, and finally break- 
ing his line of battle, rushed his troops by thousands 
into the breach, and for the moment it looked as 
if the Confederacy was doomed. 

Gen. Lee, seeing the peril in which his army was 
placed, ordered forward Gordon's division (which 
he was holding in reser\^e), placed himself at the 
head of it, and was about to lead them into battle 
in order to restore his broken lines. Shells were 
falling about Gen. Lee and his life was in peril. 
One of the officers rode up to him and said, "Gen. 
Lee, this is no place for you; you must go to the 



156 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

rear." His troops refused to go forward until Gen. 
Lee had retired from the front. One of the soldiers 
came forward, and taking the reins of Lee's horse, 
led him back. Then Gen. Gordon led his division 
forward, the enemy was driven back, the line was 
restored, and Gen. Lee's army was saved from de- 
struction and anotlier year added to the life of the 
Confederacy. 

I heard Gen. Gordon in a lecture delivered at 
"Music Hall," Baltimore, some years ago, describ- 
ing this event, say (as he stretched out his hands 
horizontally), ''My dead were piled that high, and 
three days after the battle I saw wounded men try- 
ing to pull themselves from under the mass of the 
dead above them. And at one point the slopes were 
so slippery with blood that my soldiers could not 
stand until the ground had been carpeted with the 
bodies of their fallen comrades." 

A tree about six inches in diameter standing in 
a field was literally cut down by bullets, not a shot 
from a cannon having been fired on that part of the 
field. 

The Standard Encyclopedia puts the strength of 
Grant's army at 150,000, but does not state how 
many men Lee had. Perhaps 75,000 would be a 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 57 

fair estimate. The same authority gives Grant's 
losses at the battle of the Wilderness as 18,000; 
Lee's as 1 1,000.* 

The losses in the battle of Spottsylvania Court- 
house, fought two days afterward, were as great, 
if not greater, than those of the Wilderness. 

When the cavalry retired from the front the men 
mounted their horses, and almost Lee's entire cav- 
alry force, headed by their chief. Gen. J. E. B. 
Stuart, started in a bee line for Richmond, without 
halting a moment. 

Gen. Sheridan, commanding Grant's cavalry, 
had passed around our riglit wing with his whole 
command, and was heading toward the Confed- 
erate Capital. 

I think it was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon 
when we started. Sheridan was several miles ahead 
of us. We marched all night. We overtook Sheri- 
dan at Hanover Junction, on the railroad leading 
to Richmond; not, however, until he had destroyed 
a large quantity of provisions stored there for Lee's 
army, a great loss to the Confederates at that time. 

♦General Longstrcet gives 63,998 as the total strength of Lee's 
army in this campaign. Longstrpcl was severely wounded at the 
Baltic of the Wilderness by a bullet shot through the neck. Was 
earned from the fi'-Id on a litter, and was unable to return to the 
army for several months. Lee had lost the services of Jos. E. John- 
ston, Jackson, Longstrcet, and a few days later J. E. B. Stuart. These 
were his ablest lieutenants. 



158 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Sheridan had prepared for this expedition, and 
all of his men had well-filled haversacks, while 
ours were empty. 

I cannot remember just when and where we got 
in front of Sheridan, but I know from Hanover 
Junction on we were in constant touch with his 
forces, and harassed them all we could. 

At a place called "Yellow Tavern" several regi- 
ments of our cavalry (mine among them) were dis- 
mounted, formed across the fields, and moved for- 
ward in real line of battle style until we came upon 
the enemy, also dismounted. After a brisk en- 
counter we fell back to a road that was somewhat 
sunken. 

There we halted for the purpose of stopping the 
enemy's advance, for the sunken road furnished 
us some protection, but they did not stop. They 
marched on, firing as they came. 

Their line was longer and thicker than ours, and 
it was evident that we were about to be surrounded. 
Some of our men mounted the fence in the rear and 
fled across the fields. Others stood their ground 
and were captured, I among them. 

I was near Colonel Pate, the colonel command- 
ing a regiment in my brigade. He was killed by a 




1'lils inoiniriK'iil ;il Yellow 'J'livcrii, iicjir Uicliiiioml, N'irKiiiiii, iiuirks the 
spot where <ieniTiil .(. 10. 1!. Stuart, receivcil (lie wduikI May H, \WA, which 
<'ause<l his (h-ath the next day. The ki'ouI) about the iiionunient are ex- 
cuvalrynien wlio served under (Jeneral Stuart and are all pronilnenl inoni- 
hers of the Stuart Monument Association. 

"My men and horses are tired, InniKry and Jaded, Iml all iIkIiI." 



FROM niJFJ. RUN TO AIM'OMA'l TOX. 1^9 

bullet Striking him in (lie ceiUer of the forehead. 
Also near iric was our c <'i|ilaiii, I>ru(e Gibson. 

There was a lilllc culvert across a ditch in the 
road that the farmers used in jj;oin;; from the road 
into the flehl. Some of our men crept uiuler this 
culvert and escaped. Trohahly 200 of us wen; 
captured. 

Hut the army sustained a greater loss than that, 
a loss second only to that of Stonewall Jackson. 

Just behind our line in the field was (ier). Stuart 
with his staff. A bullet struck him somewhere 
about the stomach. He was held on his horse until 
it was led to a place of safety. Then he was taken 
from his horse, put into an ambulance and carried 
to Richmond. I le died the next day. 

Stuart was considered the greatest cavalry leader 
of the war on cither side, and his death brought a 
very great loss to Gen. Lee, and also to the whole 
Confederacy. 

The Confederacy had from the beginning at- 
tached greater importance to the cavalry arm of 
the service than had the North, and many had been 
the daring raids that Stuart made within the 
enemy's lines, capturing»thousands of wagons laden 
with military stores, and many thousands of pris- 



l6o FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

oners. Almost our entire cavalry was equipped 
with saddles, bridles and arms captured from the 
enemy; nearly all the wagons in Lee's army were 
captured wagons. But perhaps Providence knew 
that the time was near at hand when we would not 
need these things, so He permitted the one who had 
been the means of supplying our.wants in this par- 
ticular to retire from the field. He was buried in 
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va., where a 
magnificent equestrian statue has been erected to 
his memory. 

Many of Stuart's raids were made under the 
cover of darkness. He always wore a long ostrich 
feather in his hat, and was a splendid rider. The 
soldiers had a war song the chorus of which was 
something like this: "We'll follow the feather of 
Stuart tonight." 

The prisoners were taken back and put under 
guard. I think this was about 4 o'clock in the after- 
noon. We remained there quietly until after dark, 
all the time, however, the fighting was going on, 
but as we were out of reach of danger in that re- 
spect, we had a brief breathing spell. 

After dark Sheridan's whole command began to 
rnove slowly toward Richmond, making frequent 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 161I 

Stops of a few minutes. The prisoners marched 
two abreast, with a line of cavalry guard on each 
side. We had, of course, to keep up with the 
cavalry. 

Our guard was very kind to us, and allowed us 
to take hold of their stirrup straps, which was quite 
a help to us as we marched along, especially in 
crossing streams, one of which I remember was up 
to our waists. It began raining at midnight, and 
continued most of the next day. The night was 
very dark, and from the distance we had covered 
from the time we started, it seemed to us that we 
must be very near the city. Finally we turned to 
the left and moved toward the James river, in a 
southeasterly direction from Richmond. 

As we had no sleep the night before, but rode 
all night, and now were walking all night in the 
rain and mud, and without food, you may know 
we were in a wretched condition. Every now and 
then a friendly Yank would hand us a cracker from 
his haversack, saying, "Here, Johnnie." But they 
were on short rations themselves, and could not 
help us much in that respect. 

The next day we were in constant peril from the 
shells thrown from the Confederate batteries, that 



1 62 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

seemed to come in every direction. In fact, Sheri- 
dan was completely surrounded, except on one 
side, and his progress was stopped there by the 
Chickahominy river. 

This is a slow, marshy river, crossed by two 
or three bridges. The chief one had been destroyed 
by the Confederates. Sheridan was in close quar- 
ters, and we prisoners had made up our minds that 
he would have to surrender his army. 

We got so bold and impudent that we hailed 
Yankee officers as they passed us, and said, "Hey 
there, Mr. Yank, I speak for that horse." 

Among these officers so hailed was a red-headed 
major, who was in command of our guard. Prior to 
this he had been very surly and exceedingly gruflf 
and harsh. So disagreeable was he that the prison- 
ers had whispered among themselves that if we did 
get him in our hands we'd make him sweat, and 
when it became evident not only to us, but to the 
enemy, that they were in danger of capture, this 
particular officer changed his attitude toward us 
very perceptibly. He took our jeers and taunts 
without a word, and, luckily for us, about this time 
he was relieved of his position, and another put in 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 63 

his place. Perhaps he had asked for it, knowing 
that he wouldn't receive very kind treatment if he 
fell into our hands. 

But, oh, the irony of Fate! On a hill fronting 
the river (not far from the bridge) was an old Vir- 
ginia mansion. The prisoners were led to this 
house and ordered to- tear it down and carry the 
timbers to the river and rebuild the bridge. What 
do you think of that? Of course, we had to obey, 
but we made loud complaints, and while we were 
carrying this timber and rebuilding the bridge, 
our enemies were protecting us, from their stand- 
point (as far as they could), by keeping back the 
Confederates, who were pouring shot and shell 
into their ranks from every direction. The bridge 
was repaired, Sheridan's command was soon safe on 
the other side, and our hopes died away. 

There are two little incidents connected with my 
capture that I ought not to leave out, so I will go 
back to that event. The first one may serve a good 
purpose if the reader is ever placed in similar cir- 
cumstances. 

When I realized that we were in the hands of the 
enemy, but before they had gotten to where I was, 
I lay down on my face in the ditch alongside of 



164 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

the wounded and dead, pretending myself to be 
dead. I had the most awful feeling while lying 
there imaginable, and felt that at any moment I 
might be thrust through with a bayonet, and the 
feeling was so intense that as soon as I heard the 
Yankees tramping about me and calling upon the 
men to surrender, I got up and surrendered. If 
I had only had presence of mind enough to have 
lain on my back and watched them from the cor- 
ner of my eye, I might have passed through the or- 
deal and escaped after they left, as they did not 
remain long. 

In the first place, the'men were cavalrymen, and 
hence had no bayonets. Then again, the Confed- 
erate bullets were hissing about their ears in such 
a manner that they never would have thought of 
testing a "Johnnie Reb" in that way in order to see 
whether he was really dead or playing possum. 

The other incident was the second night after our 
capture. It was still raining, and the weather was 
quite cool for the season (it was about the loth of 
May). We were all wet to the skin, and nearly 
starved. We were stopped in a field, a guard 
placed around us, an old cow driven up and shot, 
and we were told to help ourselves. So every fel- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 65 

low that could get a knife went up and cut his own 
steak. They gave us some fence rails, out of which 
we made little fires and broiled our cow meat. She 
may have been tough and old, and I know we had 
no salt, but the meat was as sweet to us as any porter- 
house steak we had ever eaten. 

We huddled together for the night like pigs, and 
slept comfortably, notwithstanding we had tramped 
the earth into a mud hole. 

But to go back to the crossing of the Chickahom- 
iny river. Once over that river, the enemy seemed 
to have very little opposition to their march toward 
the James. 

1 know it was a long, weary march, and their 
horses w ere giving out all along the way. When a 
horse got too sore-footed to travel, he was shot, 
and as we passed along we saw hundreds of these 
horses, with the warm life-blood flowing from a 
hole in their foreheads, lying by the side of the 
road. This was done to prevent the horses from 
falling into the hands of the Confederates. 

When we got in sight of the James river, the 
prisonerswere halted in an orchard, and rested there 
for an hour or so. Just over the fence were some 
little pigs, with their tails curled around like a 



1 66 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

curl on a girl's forehead, rooting around for some- 
thing nice to eat. One of the prisoners called to a 
Yankee to catch a pig and throw it over the fence. 
He at once made a dive for the pigs, caught one, and 
threw it to us. A great crowd rushed for the pig, 
every fellow with a knife in his hand, and as many 
as could get hold of the little fellow began cutting 
into his anatomy. I had hold of one of the hind 
legs, and while we cut the pig squealed. I got a 
whole ham for my share. Of course, I divided it 
with my comrades. 

We gathered sticks and built little fires, and had 
a grand feast of roast pig. My, it was sweet! 
There was neither ceremony, pepper nor salt. 

Soon after this banquet we were marched to the 
James river, put on a steamer, and our empty stom- 
achs filled to the brim with a good dinner. The 
first course was good beef soup, thickened with 
vegetables. We certainly enjoyed it. Then came 
roast beef and real baker's bread, something we 
hadn't had for an age. 

But to go back to Spottsylvania Courthouse. 
Grant's efiforts to get to Richmond by breaking 
through Lee's lines were as ineffectual there as they 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 67 

had been in the Wilderness two days before. So he 
packed his grip (so to speak) and made another 
move toward the James river. 

These tv/o battles, of course, had reduced his 
fighting forces materially, but the Government at 
Washington kept filling up his ranks and supplying 
him with every need. In fact, in one case particu- 
larly, they sent him more war material than he 
could use, and rather than encumber his march, he 
sent 100 cannon back to Washington, while the 
poor Confeds had no such source of supply, and 
had to be content with making the best of the ma- 
terial they had. 

Gen. Lee moved his army in a parallel line with 
Grant's, and kept in his front, ready to dispute his 
passage if he attempted to move forward. 



Chapter IX. 

From James River to Petersburg. 

"Down on the left of the Rebel lines, 

Where a breastwork stands on a copse of pines. 

Before the Rebels their ranks can form, 

The Yankees have carried the place by storm." 

. I think it was about the 12th of May when 
Grant began his march from Spottsylvania, and it 
was, I think, the 3rd of June when he made an- 
other attempt at Cold Harbor to enter Richmond 
by breaking through Lee's army, and another des- 
perate battle was fought.* Grant, however, was 
again defeated, and continued his march toward 
the James river. It was here that the colonel of 
my regiment (Flournoy) was killed. He was a 
dashing young colonel, but not as prudent as an 
officer should be. At the time he was killed he was 
standing on the top of the breastworks, behind 
which men were fighting, shouting defiance at the 
enemy, and challenging them to come out in the 
open and fight it out. Of course, it did not take 

*Swintcn, the historian of the Army of the Potomac, says of this 
battle: "The loss on the Union side was more than 13,000, while on 
the part of the Confederate it is doubtful whether it reached that 
many hundred." 

lea 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 69 

them long to put a bullet through his body. He 
ranked as major, but served as lieutenant-colonel, 
and upon the retirement of his father commanded 
the regiment. His father retired on account of age. 
Richards, captain of Company D, was made col- 
onel of our regiment, and held this position during 
the rest of the war. He had commanded a com- 
pany of cavalry from Clark county, Virginia. 

Grant differed from other commanders who 
fought the army of Northern Virginia in this re- 
spect — he refused to acknowledge defeat. If his 
attacks failed at one point after repeated attempts, 
he would move his army to the left and attack again. 
This he kept up to the end of the war. 

Not being able to reach Richmond by attacking 
Lee on the north side of the river, he crossed his 
main army to the south side, and stretching out his 
line of battle from the James to Petersburg, began 
a long siege that lasted through the fall and winter 
till late in the spring. 

Now to go back to prison. 

The steamer on which we were placed and given 
such a good, substantial dinner, soon after this took 
its departure down the James and landed us at 
Fortress Monroe, where we were put in an in- 



170 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

closure with a number of other prisoners, and 
among them the officers and crew of the British 
steamer "Grayhound," that had been captured 
while trying to run a blockade into one of the 
Southern ports. 

They all seemed to be Southern sympathizers, 
and whenever they had an opportunity showed the 
Confederate prisoners much kindness, even going 
so far as to distribute gold among them, of which 
they seemed to have an abundant supply. This was, 
of course, done on the sly, and the Confederates 
were careful to conceal these gifts. Those who 
were well enough off to wear stockings, slipped the 
gold in their stocking-leg. Some put it in their 
mouths. These precautions were necessary, as the 
prisoners were frequently searched. 

These Englishmen were loud in their protests, 
and were making all kinds of threats as to what 
their Government would do if it learned of their 
treatment. 

After remaining there a few days the Confed- 
erates were again marched aboard a steamer and 
taken to "Point Lookout," where a regular prison- 
camp had been established. I think there were 
about 15,000 prisoners at this camp guarded by 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 171 

negro troops, which made our Southern blood boil. 
As the darkies used to say, "The bottom rail had 
got on top." 

The camp was on a point of land formed by the 
junction of the Potomac river and Chesapeake Bay 
on the north side of the river. I imagine there were 
about 20 acres of ground, surrounded by a high 
board fence, probably about 14 feet high. Just be- 
low the top was built a platform about three feet 
wide, and on this platform the guards walked to 
and fro with their guns on their shoulders. From 
their position they could overlook the whole camp, 
as the ground was perfectly level. There was 
also a strong guard inside the camp, while artillery 
and regiments of infantry were stationed near the 
camp to guard it from outside attack, and one or 
more gunboats patrolled the waters that nearly 
surrounded the camp. 

Notwithstanding this precaution, occasionally 
prisoners made their escape. One ingenious 
method that baffled our guards for a long time was 
the following: 

The prisoners were allowed to go outside of the 
enclosure on the beach to bathe. And if an empty 
barrel or box happened to be floating on the water, 



172 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

a prisoner in bathing would watch his opportunity, 
slip his head under the barrel or box, and then as 
the tide drifted up the river, would follow it, keep- 
ing as near the shore as necessary until he got be- 
yond the reach of the guard, and then take to the 
woods. 

The punishment for trying to escape was cruel. 
Those who were caught at it were strung up to a 
pole by the thumbs, with the tips of their toes just 
touching the ground. Sometimes the men would 
faint, and had to be cut down. 

Upon the whole, prison life was very monoto- 
nous. It was such an unhealthy camp that the pris- 
oners considered that they had a better chance for 
their lives fighting in the army. 

The water was brackish and unpleasant to the 
taste. The only water we had was from pumps 
scattered about over the camps, and during the four 
months that I was there the pumps were always 
surrounded by a thirsty crowd of from 40 to 50 
prisoners, each with his tin cup, trying to wedge 
his way in, that he might quench his thirst. 

The food, while good, was very scant. Break- 
fast consisted of cofifee and a loaf of bread, the latter 
under ordinary circumstances, with vegetables and 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 73 

Other food, would probably suffice for two meals. 
This loaf was given us at breakfast, and if we ate 
it all then we went without bread for dinner. If 
there was any left over we took it to our tents, laid 
it on the ground, and saved it for the next meal. 

The dinners consisted of a tin cup of soup (gen- 
erally bean or other vegetable), a small piece of 
meat on a tin plate, on which a little vinegar was 
poured to prevent scurvy. My recollection is we 
had no other meal, but my mind is not perfectly 
clear on this point. I do know, however, that we 
were always hungry, and the chief topic of con- 
versation was the sumptuous meals we had sat down 
to in other days. 

As I recalled the tables of former years laden 
with bacon, cabbage, potatoes and hominy, I re- 
member how I reproached myself for not having 
eaten more when I had the opportunity. Delica- 
cies never entered into the discussion ; it was always 
the plain, simple foods that we talked about and 
longed for. 

We were told that the short rations were given 
us in retaliation for the scanty food supplied to 
their soldiers in Southern prisons. 

The hospitals were crowded all the time, and 



174 FRO^^ BULL- RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

there were many sick in the camp waiting their 
opportunity to go into hospitals. 

We lived in what is known as Sibley tents, shaped 
like a bell, with an opening in the top about 15 
inches in diameter. 

There were 12 men to a tent, who, when they 
slept, arranged themselves in a circle, like the 
spokes of a wagon, with their feet toward the cen- 
ter. These tents were as close as they could stand 
on the ground, with wide avenues between every 
two rows of tents, thus allowing every tent to front 
on an avenue. 

Every day the prisoners were called out of their 
tents and formed in line; roll was called and the 
prisoners searched. And while they were being 
searched, the guards were searching the tents. For 
just what purpose this search was done I do not 
know, unless it was for fear that arms might be 
smuggled in to be used by the prisoners for making 
their escape. 

Many of the prisoners had a peculiar affection 
of the eyes, caused, perhaps, by the glare from the 
white tents, the sand, and the reflection from the 
water. There was nothing green to be seen any- 
where, consequently many of the prisoners became 




COKI". JOUIS L. ^^Mllll. 



CORP. .lOHN L. SMiril, 

ItSth ronnsjhnnia Yohintoers. 

A typionl Fetlenil solilior of 1861. (Soo page 248.) 

"All (lulot nloiiR the rotoiuac tonight." 




CHAUhKH I'AUKUII.L, 
Conijiany K, 2',Ui IJaltallori VIrKlrilji 



Infantry. 



'I'IiIh plflure rcpn.'HftntH a typWal CouU-iUrnU: Holdlcr of WA. T\u: two 
plfturcK fafint? csuh otlicr art; a fair rciiiCHcntatlon of llir? boy« who foiiKht 
tliroUKli till- war from ln-Kinnlrm to end. At thin dati;, 0<?f(Mnl)»!r, I'JlO. the 
men are still living. Mr. rarklilirH home Ih In IJaltlmorc, M«l., and Mr. 
SmIth'N i-cHldcnce Ih In I'lilladelplila, I'a. 

"Not war, but glory, made thoHe youths contend, 
And each brave foe was In IiIk koiiI a frb-nd " 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 75 

blind for a portion of the 24 hours. Just as the sun 
was sinking behind the fence they would become 
totally blind, and had to be led about by someone. 
As morning light came the blindness would disap- 
pear. 

Some of the prisoners who were mechanics or 
artisans got work outside, but I believe they got no 
pay except full rations and the privilege of bring- 
ing things into camp, such as blocks of wood and 
pieces of metal. Out of these were manufactured a 
great many interesting little articles — small steam 
locomotives, wooden fans, rings from rubber but- 
tons set with gold and silver, and sometimes gems. 
One ingenious fellow built a small distillery and 
made whiskey from potato rinds or whatever 
refuse he could pick up, and got drunk on the 
product. 

All about the camp were boards on which these 
manufactured articles were exposed for sale. A 
cracker would buy a chew of tobacco. The to- 
bacco was cut up into chews and half chews. The 
crackers were brought in by the men who went out 
to work. I cannot recall all the curious things that 
were exposed for sale within the camp. 

Whilst in prison, twice I was very kindly remem- 



176 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

bered by Miss Melissa Baker of Baltimore, Md., 
who sent me boxes containing provisions, clothing, 
towels, soap, toothbrush, jars of preserves, cooked 
ham, crackers, lemons, tea, coffee and sugar. 
When I received the first box I just concluded that 
I was going to kill myself eating. I ate, and ate, 
and ate. I simply could not stop ; and so did all my 
comrades in the tent. 

So, of course, the box didn't last long. How- 
ever, at first I suffered no evil consequences, but 
finally, like most of the other prisoners, was taken 
sick (though not from eating), and my comrades 
made application for my entrance into the hospital. 
I had to wait a week or ten days before there was a 
vacancy. I was carried there on a stretcher, and 
was so sick that I had to be fed. 

Soon after my entrance into the hospital Caleb 
Rector was brought in. His home was on the turn- 
pike between Middleburg and Upperville. He 
had a scorching fever, and was soon delirious. I 
put my hand on him, and the heat almost burned 
me. One day a nurse took a wet towel and put 
it on his forehead. In a little while I saw a 
smile play over his face, and as the nurse was 
bending over him he reached up one hand and 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 177 

caught the nurse by the hair; then pulling his head 
down, and lifting the wet towel with his other 
hand, tried to put it on the nurse's forehead. That 
act revealed the character of the man. He was 
open-hearted and generous, and the cool towel on 
his forehead was so pleasant to him that he wanted 
the nurse to share it with him. 

The nurses were all men, chosen from among the 
prisoners. I never saw a woman the whole time I 
was in prison. 

The hospitals were long tents, each holding about 
30 cots. As soon as a patient died, he was taken out 
to the dead-house, the sheets changed, and another 
brought in. 

When I was first taken there I remarked to my 
neighbor that I did not think that was very prudent 
(meaning the placing of a new patient at once on 
a bed that was still warm from the body that had 
just been removed). He replied that the bed that 
I was on had been occupied by a smallpox patient, 
and I was put on it a few minutes after the patient 
was taken out. 

However, there was a separate hospital for con- 
tagious diseases, and the patient had been removed 
as soon as the disease developed. 



178 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Most of those who went into the hospital died. 
The dead were all carried at once to the dead-house 
on stretchers, and once a day a two-horse wagon 
came in, and their bodies were laid in it like so 
much cord wood, uncoffined, taken out and buried 
in long trenches. The trenches were seven feet 
wide and three feet deep, and the bodies were laid 
across the trench side by side and covered with 
earth. 

I had been in prison about four months when 
news came that the two Governments had agreed 
upon an exchange of prisoners ; it only included the 
sick in the hospitals. Of course, every patient in 
the hospital was on the anxious bench, wonder- 
ing whether he would be included among the for- 
tunate ones. Some days afterward a corps of phy- 
sicians came to the hospital tents to examine the 
different patients who lay on the cots, taking the 
name of one and leaving another. I happened to 
be among those who were selected for exchange. 
The object seemed to be to take only those who were 
not liable to be fit for service soon. 

This in fact was not an exchange, but each side 
had agreed to parole the sick from the hospitals, 
that is, those who were not too ill to be moved. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 79 

At one time the two Governments freely exchanged 
prisoners, but this worked so much to the advantage 
of the South that the North refused to continue the 
agreement. All Southern soldiers were enlisted 
for the war, and when the prisoners came back 
from the North they went at once into the armies 
of the Confederacy, while Northern prisoners, re- 
turning from the South, mostly went to their homes, 
as they enlisted for a term, and their terms of 
service in most cases had about expired. Then 
again, the South was taxed severely to feed its own 
soldiers and citizens, and.was only too glad to get 
rid of the burden of caring for Northern prison- 
ers. Hence the North did all it could to restrict 
the exchange of prisoners, but there was such 
a pressure brought to bear upon the U. S. Govern- 
ment by those who had sick and wounded friends 
confined in Southern prisons, that now and then 
each side would parole a number of prisoners from 
the hospitals who might later be exchanged. My 
recollection is that about 1500 Confederate pris- 
oners in the hospital at Point Lookout were paroled 
at this time. 

We were put on a steamer and carried to a point 
below Richmond, on the James river, where we 



l8o FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

met a like number of Federal prisancps that came 
down from Richmond, and there the exchange was 
made. The vessel that carried us up the river was 
a small one, and the sick were packed on the deck 
and in the hold of the vessel as thick as they could 
lie. They were all sick, but had to lie on the hard 
decks with no attention, except that a doctor now 
and then went through the vessel handing out pills 
to any who wanted them. He carried them loose 
in his pocket, and as he stepped between and over 
the men as they lay on the hard beds, he would say, 
**Who wants a pill?" And all around him the 
bony, emaciated arms would be stretched up to re- 
ceive the medicine. What the pills contained no 
one knew, but the suffering men swallowed them 
and asked no questions. They were sick, and needed 
medicine, and this was medicine. What more did 
a sick soldier need? The disease, however, was 
almost entirely a bowel affection, and, perhaps, the 
same medicine served for all cases. Many died on 
the way. A large number of the dead were put off 
at Fortress Monroe as the vessel passed. 

Just before reaching the point where the vessels 
were to meet in the river, our vessel was drawn up 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. l8l 

alongside of a fine large steamer, and we were 
transferred to it. 

All the very sick were placed upon new mat- 
tresses. This was the condition in which we were 
received by our Confederate friends. 

The vessel that landed us on the bank of the 
James took back the Federal prisoners that had 
been brought down from Richmond, but I hardly 
think they were transferred to the smaller vessel 
that brought us from Point Lookout. The Federal 
authorities were ashamed to let the officers of the 
Confederate Government see the miserable condi- 
tion in which we were transported ; hence the trans- 
fer to the larger vessel just before delivering us to 
the Confederates. As soon as we landed we were 
all given a tin cup of hot, nutritious soup, the like 
of which we had not tasted since leaving our homes 
for the field, unless it was the soup the Yanks had 
given us four m^onths before when we embarked on 
the James river for Fortress Monroe prison. 

We were conveyed from this point to Richmond 
by rail, and distributed among the various army 
hospitals in the city. I was sent to the Chimborazo 
Hospital, on the outskirts of the city, located on a 
blufjf looking down the river, within hearing dis- 



1 82 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

tance of the siege guns on Drury's Bluff, on the 
James. These were constantly throwing missiles of 
some sort at the Yankee gunboats below. I re- 
mained in the hospital about ten days, and then was 
considered well enough to go into camp with other 
convalescents. There were several hundred of us. 
The camp was near the city. 

Some were paroled prisoners and some were 
from the hospitals of the city, but not strong enough 
to return to their commands. 

All who could reach their homes were allowed 
leave of absence, but much of the Confederate ter- 
ritory was then in the hands of the Northern 
armies, and all whose homes could not in safety be 
reached were placed in camps until they were in 
condition for active service. Of course, those on 
parole could not re-enter the army until regularly 
exchanged. 

After remaining in this camp a short time and 
receiving in Confederate paper money a portion 
of our pay, we were marched into Richmond and 
to one of the depots. We did not know what dis- 
position they intended making of us (perhaps we 
were going to a new camp), but there was a train 
that was just starting out for Gordonsville, so three 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 83 

of US got on the rear platform of the end car and 
thus beat our way to Gordonsville without being 
noticed. This was as far as the train could go in 
safety on account of the proximity of the enemy. 
When we got off we noticed Gen. Lee standing in 
the crowd, having just alighted from the train. I 
had often seen him, but had never got as close to him 
as I desired. Now, this was my chance. I went up 
within five feet of him, and took a good look. I 
never expect again to look upon such a splendid 
piece of humanity. He was dressed in a new Con- 
federate uniform that fitted him perfectly, with 
long-legged boots, reaching above the knees. His 
collar was adorned on each side with three gold 
stars, surrounded by a gold wreath. His head was 
covered with a new soft black hat, encircled with 
a gold cord, from which dangled two gold acorns, 
one on each end. On his hands he wore yellow- 
buckskin gauntlets, reaching one-third the way to 
his elbows. His full beard, closely clipped, was 
iron-gray, white predominating. I imagined that 
he was a little over six feet and would weigh 190 
pounds. His eyes, I think, were brown, and as 
bright as stars. No picture could possibly do him 



184 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

justice. I suppose it would take cycles of time to 
produce another such as he — so perfect in form and 
feature. 

We three at once struck off across the fields to 
go as far as we could toward our homes. We 
moved in the direction of Charlottesville, and, 
avoiding the town, passed beyond, but were soon 
apprised of the fact that we could not go farther 
without danger of running into the enemy. We 
put up at a farmhouse for a few days, and after 
learning that the enemy had withdrawn from the 
immediate vicinity, we took to the road, our desti- 
nation being the home of my brother Gerard, a 
farmer living near McGaheysville, Rockingham 
county, just west of the Blue Ridge. We arrived 
there in due time, and remained quite a while, per- 
haps a month. We did work about the farm, which 
was accepted as compensation for our board. Of 
course, no one thought of asking money considera- 
tion from a soldier, and as far as I was concerned, 
I felt free to come and go without money and with- 
out price. 

When I was captured I rode a borrow^ed horse, 
belonging to one of the members of my command. 
This horse was not captured with me, and was 



FROiM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 185 

taken possession of by the owner, but I had a horse 
that I had left with my brother Gerard to recuper- 
ate, and when I reached there I expected to use 
this horse in getting home. Imagine my disap- 
pointment when I was told that he was dead. His 
rest and good pasture had put fresh blood in his 
veins and vigorous life in his body, and one day, 
as he was sporting in the field and performing va- 
rious gymnastic stunts, he broke a blood vessel and 
bled to death. 

My brother John, who was then in prison, had 
a horse there also. I pressed that horse into service, 
and started for home late in the fall. I got safely 
through the enemy's lines, and received a warm 
welcome by the folks at home. I was still a pa- 
roled prisoner, and had to refrain from going on 
any of the expeditions that were making Mosby 
and his men famous and a terror to the authorities 
in Washington, although I was strongly tempted to 
do so. The winter was spent pretty much as the 
one I have already described. The life of the Con- 
federacy, for whose existence we had suffered and 
lost so much, was hanging in the balance. Every 
family was mourning the loss of one or more dead 
or maimed; food and clothing could hardly be ob- 



1 86 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOALUTOX. 

tained at any price. To add to the distressed condi- 
tion, a decree had gone out from Washington that 
all the mills, barns, provender for beast and food 
for man were to be burned, and all cattle and horses 
of every description found driven off. This decree 
had been carried out with a cruelty that in the light 
of present-day civilization seems incredible. 

The armies, like the locust of Egypt, went out 
from Washington, swept through the rich Valley 
of Virginia beyond Staunton and destroyed or car- 
ried off everything except the homes and the old 
men and women and children who occupied them. 
Many of these homes were destroyed by catching 
fire from the burning barns and mills. Every part 
of Virginia within reach of the Northern armies 
suffered the same devastation. 

While I write this, a gentleman sits in my ofHce 
who was in the Northern army and took part in the 
burning. I have just read the foregoing to him 
and asked him if it were not true. "Yes," said he, 
"every word of it." 

Notwithstanding this condition of things, every- 
where might be heard the cry, "On with the dance, 
let joy be unconfined." Mosby's fame as a daring 
raider had spread far and wide, and his command 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 87 

had increased to over 500. Dashing young cava- 
liers from every part of Virginia, mounted upon 
handsome steeds, came trooping in to join his com- 
mand. They were mostly boys who had been too 
young to enter the army at the beginning of hostili- 
ties, but now, as they became old enough to be 
ranked as soldiers, were anxious to get into the 
midst of the greatest excitement. The hills and val- 
leys of Loudoun and Fauquier, coupled with parts 
of the adjacent counties, furnished the field, and 
John S. Mosby of Warrenton, Va., was accepted as 
their leader. 

What might we expect with these 500 handsome 
young men, all well mounted and armed, in whose 
veins flowed the blood of the heroes of the Revolu- 
tion — these 500 heroes, coming in every few days, 
some of them with the marks of the battle on their 
bodies and trophies of victories in their hands? 
What do you suppose those Virginia girls were 
going to do about it? Put on sackcloth and ashes? 
Well, it was sackcloth they wore, and many of their 
treasures were in ashes, but their spirits were un- 
broken. They had faith in the God of battles, and 
while they could not bear arms, they said, "Let us 
make merry, for these are our brothers and lovers; 



1 88 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

we should cheer them with laughter and song; 
it will make them stronger and braver." And so it 
did, and they fiddled and danced while "Rome 
burned." 

Some time during the latter part of the winter 
I learned that all the prisoners who were paroled 
at a certain time had been exchanged, and were 
ordered to rejoin their various commands. That 
included me. 

As I was no longer under obligation not to take 
up arms against the U. S. Government, I could not 
refrain from taking some part in the upholding of 
what was often called Mosby's Confederacy (mean- 
ing the territory in which he operated), so I was 
tempted to steal a few more days before obeying the 
order from Richmond. I went with Mosby on one 
occasion when the Yankees made a raid through 
Loudoun and Fauquier with cavalry and artillery 
seeking to annihilate his command. Mosby had 
all his force out on the occasion, and hung on the 
enemy's front flanks and rear from the time they 
entered his territory until they left. He did not 
allow them time to eat, sleep or rest. In an en- 
counter near my home a Yankee's horse was killed, 
from which I took the bridle, which was a very 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 89 

fine one. In doing so I got my hands bloody, and 
the blood from the bridle stained my clothes. This 
started the rumor that I was wounded, and it 
reached my home before I got there, but I soon ar- 
rived and explained the matter. 

Shortly afterward I was in company with a num- 
ber of others on the way to Lee's army, the greater 
portion of which was south of Richmond, stretch- 
ing from there to Petersburg. 

Now to go back to my capture at Yellow Tavern. 
After Grant's repulse at Cold Harbor he crossed 
the James river with his army and began the 
siege of Richmond, which lasted all through the 
remainder of the fall and winter of 1864 and 1865 
into April. 

The most sensational event that occurred during 
this campaign was the battle of the Crater, as it 
was called. Grant attempted to break Lee's lines 
by digging a great tunnel, which had for its object 
the blowing up of Lee's intrenchments, and then 
in the confusion rushing a large force into the open- 
ing. The tunnel was finished up to and under Lee's 
lines and loaded with explosives. The attack that 
followed resulted in a great slaughter, especially 
of Grant's men, and the total failure of the project. 



190 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

The fuse was lit, but there was no result. A brave 
Union officer entered the tunnel to discover the 
cause. Finding that the fuse had gone out, he relit 
it, and then came the explosion. This event oc- 
curred on July 30. 

The colonel of my regiment (Flournoy), as I 
stated, was killed at the battle of Cold Harbor. 
A gallant young officer, he was a little too 
fond of the bottle, not choice in his language and 
rather reckless. A few days before he was killed 
he remarked to one of his staff as they stood around 
the campfire, "I don't believe the bullet that is to 
kill me has yet been molded." Foolish man ; at that 
very time, not far from where he stood, was a sol- 
dier in blue carrying about his waist a leather cart- 
ridge-box that held the very bullet that was to end 
his life, and not many hours afterward that bullet 
and that colonel met. The latter surrendered with- 
out a word. 

The winter was a long, dreary one, and the Con- 
federates, being compelled to live In the trenches 
night and day, suffered terribly from cold and hun- 
ger. Wade Hampton took Gen. Stuart's place 
after the latter's death, and during the winter made 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 9 1! 

a raid inside Grant's lines and drove out 1500 head 
of fat cattle. It did not take Lee's hungry soldiers 
long to dispose of them and lick their chops for 
more. Grant's great army, stretching from the 
James river to Petersburg, compelled Gen. Lee to 
do the same with his little, half-starved and scant- 
ily-clothed force, and all w^inter long Grant 
pounded away at Lee's front, trying to break 
through. 



Chapter X. 

From Petersburg to Appomattox and Home. 

"There hangs a saber, and there a rein, 
With a rusty buckle and a green curb chain ; 
A pair of spurs on the old grey wall, 
And a moldy saddle — well, that is all." 

April 2, 1865, Lee was compelled to evacuate 
Richmond, abandon his whole battle line, and fall 
back toward the mountains. He hoped to be able 
to join his forces with those of Gen. Jos. E. John- 
ston, who was advancing northward through North 
Carolina, but his losses were so heavy and his army 
almost starved, the road deep with mud from ex- 
cessive rains, making it impossible for his gaunt, 
lean horses to draw his artillery and wagons. He 
saw further resistance was useless, so on April 9, 
1865, Lee surrendered what was left of his once 
formidable army. The number was a little less 
than 8000 men. I have seen it stated that Lee had 
about 35,000 men,* when, on April 2, he ordered 



♦General Longstreet says the total number surrendered to Grant 
was 28,356. Many of these came in voluntarily and surrendered. 
Lee had with him 1500 prisoners, taken since leaving Petersburg. 
These were the first to be delivered to the Union army. The first 
generous act Grant did after the surrender was to furnish Lee's 
hungry soldiers and horses with food. Grant's army must have 
numbered not far from 150,000. 

193 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. J 93 

the evacuation of his line of intrenchments. Some 
of his cavalry, being on the outskirts, were not in- 
cluded in the surrender. Besides this, during the 
seven days' retreat, Grant's forces were pressing 
Lee's army on all sides, killing, wounding and cap- 
turing some of his men every hour; this accounts 
for the small number that Gen. Lee personally 
surrendered. The first thing that was done after 
the surrender was an application from Gen. Lee 
to Grant for food for his horses and men, which 
was promptly supplied. Of course, there is much 
that is interesting in connection with the surrender 
that need not be recorded here. Grant's treatment 
of Lee and his soldiers won for him praise all over 
the South. 

But to go back. As I have said, I was on the 
march from home toward the army, and had 
reached a point not far from Charlottesville. There 
were about a dozen of us, all belonging to my regi- 
ment. About noon we saw advancing toward us a 
small body of cavalry. At first we took them for 
the enemy and approached them cautiously, they 
using the same precaution. When we discovered 
that wc were fellow-Confeds we passed with a 
salute. One of them called to us and said, "Boys, 
vou mav as well eo home; Lee has surrendered his 



194 ^ROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

army." We paid no attention to it, but moved on. 
A mile farther we met another squad and asked 
what was the news from the army. We got this 
reply: "As we passed through Charlottesville we 
came near being mobbed for telling the news from 
the army. You had better go on and find out for 
yourselves." Soon after this we met a colonel lead- 
ing about 40 cavalrymen. By this time we began to 
feel that something was wrong. The colonel halted 
his men and frankly told us that it was a fact that 
Lee had surrendered his army. He stated that 
some of the cavalry had escaped and they were 
making their way toward their homes, and advised 
us to do the same. The colonel and his men moved 
on, and we halted for an hour in the road discussing 
the situation and trying to determine what to do. 
We were not prepared to act upon the evidence 
that we had had regarding the surrender, but were 
willing to admit that it might be true. One fellow 
from Company F, riding a gray horse, rose in his 
stirrups, and lifting his clinched hand high above 
his head, said, "If Gen. Lee has had to surrender 
his army, there is not a just God in Heaven." 

Finally we decided to cross the mountains into 
the Virginia Valley and tarry in the vicinity of 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 95 

Staunton and await further tidings. I made a bee- 
line for my brother Gerard's. The others scattered 
here and there. After remaining a few days at my 
brother's I started, in company with six or eight 
others, who were from the lower end of the valley, 
principally Clarke county, for my home in Lou- 
doun, with no definite idea as to what I should do 
before I got there. In fact, the others were in the 
same frame of mind. 

We had heard and read the proclamation that 
all Confederate soldiers who would surrender their 
arms and take the oath of allegiance to the U. S. 
Government (except a certain grade of officers) 
would be allowed to go to their homes and not be 
molested, but we had not yet come to the point of 
surrendering. 

We moved on down the valley pike, noting as we 
went the terrible havoc the war had made, com- 
menting on what we called Jackson's mileposts, 
viz., the skeletons of horses that had fallen by the 
way. They were, however, too thick to be called 
mileposts, but that is what we called them. 

A little below Woodstock, I think it was, we saw 
on a hill, standing in the middle of the road facing 
us, two sentinels on horseback. They were 



196 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Yankee pickets. I think there were eight of us. 
We halted. Someone said, "Well, boys, what are 
we going to do? We can't pass these pickets. 
Shall we surrender?" I guess we stood there for 
an hour. We were all mounted. Finally a young 
fellow from Clarke county said, "I'm going up and 
surrender." Another said, "I go with you." And 
the two, taking something in their hands that would 
pass for a flag of truce (white handkerchiefs had 
become obsolete), went forward and were allowed 
to pass. They went to headquarters and surren- 
dered. Then one by one the little band melted away, 
leaving two, and I was one of them. We were not 
ready to surrender. We went back out of sight, and 
made a flank movement to get into the foothills of 
the Massanuttcn mountains, and by keeping under 
cover of the timber, managed to get within 12 miles 
of my home without being molested. 

As we stood on the edge of the woods we saw the 
Yankee cavalry moving up and down the turnpike 
running from Paris to Middleburg. It looked as 
if there was nothing else to do but surrender. At 
this point my comrade deserted me and went 
forward and surrendered. I watched my oppor- 
tunity, slipped across the pike unobserved, and fol- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 97 

lowing the Blue Ridge mountains until nearly op- 
posite my home, took a straight line across the fields 
and reached home safely. As I carried my full 
complement of arms I created no little surprise and 
consternation. 

Union soldiers were constantly passing along the 
road which ran close by my home, some of them 
stopping for water or for information, but I could 
not fully make up my mind to surrender. My 
brother Richard of Mosby's command was of the 
same mind. Mosby and all his men had surren- 
dered, and the family pleaded with us to do the 
same, but we were obstinate. This, however, was 
nothing to our credit. When one is whipped he 
should be man enough to acknowledge it and brave 
enough to surrender, unless the conqueror be a 
cannibal. 

Thus ended my career as a soldier. As I look 
back over those four eventful years, after a lapse of 
over 40 years, it all seems a dream. In time of 
peace it is a struggle for 75 per cent, of us to get a 
fair living out of the earth, but the people down 
South were able to live, and were in a degree com- 
fortable and contented, and managed to get food 
enough to preserve their bodies and keep them 



198 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Strong and healthy. Flour was $500 a barrel. I 
paid $125 in Richmond for a hat that I could now 
buy for $1. This common red-striped candy, $25 
per pound. Samuel Rector had gone from Lou- 
doun county to Richmond in 1864 on some business. 
When ready to go home he thought it would be 
nice and the proper thing to do to take the family 
some little remembrances. He went into a confec- 
tionery store and asked to see some candies. The 
jars were taken down and he tasted first one then 
another. Selecting one and asking the price, he was 
told that it was $25 per pound. It was of the long, 
red-striped variety just mentioned, worth in times 
of peace about 10 cents per pound. He had a pound 
of it wrapped up, and handed the proprietor a $50 
Confederate note. Twenty dollars was handed 
back in change. Mr. Rector said, "I understood 
you to say the price was $25." "That is true," said 
the aflfable confectioner, "but you ate $5 worth." 
The joke was well worth $5 to Mr. Rector, and he 
got more pleasure out of it than he did out of the 
pound of candy. 

There were four commodities with which the 
South was plentifully supplied, viz., tobacco, cot- 
ton, money and horses. We raised the two former 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 1 99 

in the territory not harassed by marching armies. 
The third was supplied by printing presses, and the 
horses were captured from our enemy. Of course, 
bridles, saddles, harness and wagons came with the 
horses. 

I have omitted a great many little entertaining 
incidents partly for the sake of brevity and partly 
because they escaped my memory at the time they 
should have been narrated. One that I just now 
recall, and one which the children always used to 
make me tell whenever war stories were called for, 
regardless of how often it had been repeated, I 
will insert here: 

One cold, windy night in the winter of '62 I was 
on picket on the turnpike between Upperville and 
Middleburg. Pickets in the Confederate army 
always stood alone, as two or more would likely be 
absorbed in conversation and forget their duty. 
We were also admonished not to dismount. I was 
a little reckless that night, and dismounting 
stood leaning against my horse to break the bleak 
wind and absorb as much heat from his body as 
possible. He became restless, and I noticed that 
he was looking intently down the pike and throw- 
ing his head up and down as horses will do when 



200 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

excited. I listened, but could hear no sound, and 
told my steed to keep still, but his keen eyes or ears 
saw or heard something that worried him, and he 
kept his ears pointed down in the direction from 
which the enemy would probably come if they 
came at all. I said to myself, "You had better 
mount your horse." But I delayed. I then recalled 
the fact that news had reached the camp that day 
that a body of cavalry had left the vicinity of Wash- 
ington and was moving northeast, and we had been 
commanded to keep a sharp lookout. Then I con- 
cluded to mount, but before I could do so I realized 
that it was too late. 

I was standing close by one of those old Vir- 
ginia stone fences, about five feet high, and in the 
darkness I saw an object creeping up on the other 
side of the fence, close to it, and only a few feet 
from where I stood. I immediately concluded that 
the object was a man, and that he was from the 
enemy and was bent on capturing or killing the 
picket, so as to surprise our camp. The most ac- 
cessible weapon I had was my sabre. I drew it 
and made a cut at what I conceived to be the man's 
head. As I did so, the object disappeared behind 
the fence, and in its place appeared what proved 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 20I 

to be a black' cat's tail, which in a flash followed 
the cat. Although it was quite dark, the little black 
object appearing between me and the sky had been 
plainly visible. This incident taught me a lesson 
that I never forgot. I mounted my horse, and never 
was known afterward to dismount when on the 
picket line. I believe this was the greatest fright 
I encountered during my whole four years' war ex- 
perience. 

One more little incident, and a short tribute to 
the remarkable fidelity of the colored people of 
the South to the Southern cause and the families 
of their owners, and I shall have finished. 

There was in my company a soldier by the name 
of Owens — Mason Owens. He was a splendid fel- 
low, quiet in his demeanor, brave in battle, always 
in his place, whether that place was in the front or 
rear rank, but never liked to do anything that called 
for disguise or deception, such as acting as a spy or 
disguised as a Union soldier, in order to get into 
the enemy's camp, although he recognized that it 
was necessary to have men for work of this kind. 
Owens was very fond of me; in fact, I had no more 
faithful friend in the army. He was continually 
with me, doing me favors, sharing with me any 



202 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

delicacy that came into his possession, keeping close 
by me in battle. Sometimes when the regiment 
would be ordered to dismount for the purpose of 
engaging the foe on foot (and he was No. 4, making 
it his duty to remain mounted and take care of Nos. 
I, 2, and 3 horses) , he would quickly dismount and 
take my place in the ranks and leave me the care of 
the horses (a place few objected to having), and 
many like favors. One afternoon, near night, our 
captain said that he had a requisition for six picked 
men to do some hazardous nightwork within the 
enemy's lines, just the kind of duty that Owens de- 
tested. But fate was against him, and he and five 
others were selected. He sullenly complied, and 
as he rode out of the ranks with his face flushed and 
his head bowed, I heard him say, "I don't like this." 
Someone said, "Owens, I'll take your place." He 
turned and gave him a look that must have chilled 
the fellow's blood, and said, ^^Didn't you hear Capt. 
Gibson call me?'' 

I saw the six ride off; Owens didn't even say 
good-bye to me. That night one of Lee's noted 
scouts led these men, vv^ith others taken from other 
commands, into the enemy's camp, and Owens 
never returned. He was shot, and fell from his 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 203 

horse, dying either from cold or the wound. At 
intervals during the night a citizen living near 
where he fell heard someone calling, but was afraid 
to go out. The next morning he found his dead 
body and buried it. I grieved very much over his 
death, occurring as it did. 

Now I want to say that I shall ever have a tender 
spot in my breast for the colored people, owing to 
what I know of the race, judged from my associa- 
tion with them from early childhood up to and in- 
cluding the years of the Civil War, and, indeed, 
some years after. 

My home in Loudoun county, on the border line 
between the North and South, gave me an unusual 
opportunity of judging how far the negro could be 
trusted in caring for and protecting the homes of 
the men who were in the Southern armies. Scat- 
tered all through the South, and especially in the 
border States, there were white men who were not 
in sympathy with the South, and some of them 
acted as spies and guides for the Northern troops 
as they marched and counter-marched over the 
land; but I never knew of negroes being guilty of 
like conduct. They not only watched over and pro- 
tected the women and children in their homes, but 



204 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

were equally faithful and careful to protect the 
Southern soldier from capture when he returned 
home to see his loved ones. 

No soldier in Loudoun or Fauquier counties 
ever feared that his or his neighbor's servants would 
betray him to the enemy. The negro always said, 
in speaking of the Southern soldiers, "our soldiers," 
although he well knew that the success of the North 
meant his freedom, while the success of the South 
meant the continuation of his slavery. 

Another* remarkable thing. No one ever heard 
of a negro slave, or, so far as I know, a free negro 
of the South, offering an insult or an indignity to a 
white woman. They were frequently commis- 
sioned to escort the daughters of the family to 
church, or to school, or on any expedition taking 
them from home. Sometimes the distance was long 
and across fields and through lonely woods, but the 
kinky-headed, pigeon-heeled colored man always 
delivered his charge safely, and would have died 
in his footsteps to do it if the occasion required. 
Freedom, education, or both, or something else, 
has developed in the negro traits that no one ever 
dreamed he possessed until after the close of the 
Civil War. Hence, I have great respect for the 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMAITOX. 205 

race. Not, however, on account of these lately- 
developed traits, but for those other traits that were 
so much in evidence during the time that tried 
men's souls, and some day and somewhere a lasting 
memorial will be erected by the whites of the South 
to the memory of these people, so that coming gen- 
erations may know we were not unmindful of the 
gratitude due our former slaves; especially to the 
old colored "mammy." She, however, was never a 
slave, but a queen with a turban for a crown — a 
queen who held sway in a realm that was all her 
own. 

"She was lovely to me in her colored bandana, 

With which she turbancd her head; 
Her songs were far sweeter than flute or piano 

As she put me to sleep in my bed. 
Her soft, crooning voice I can never forget; 
Like an angel in dreams she comes to me yet." 

The following are the names of the several divi- 
sions of the army in which I served, and the names 
of the chief of each division from the captain of 
my company to the commander-in-chief of the 
army: 

Company. — I was in Company A, first com- 
manded by Col. Richard H. Dulaney, who served 
a few months and was promoted. Then by his 
cousin, Henry Dulaney, who shortly retired, and 



2o6 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOALATTOX. 

was succeeded by Bruce Gibson of Fauquier county, 
Virginia, who served during the entire war, and 
was once knocked from his horse by the concussion 
of a shell, but sustained no other injuries. Was a 
prisoner from June, 1864, to the end of the war. 

Regiment. - Sixth Virginia Cavalary, com- 
manded by Charles Field (afterward Gen. Charles 
Field) ; then by Thomas S. Flournoy, who was 
retired on account of age. He was succeeded by 
Julian Harrison, who was retired on account of 
continued illness and- because of a serious wound 
received in battle. Harrison was succeeded by 
Cabel Flournoy (son of Thomas S. Flournoy) , who 
was killed at Cold Harbor, and was succeeded by 
Daniel Richardson, former captain of Company D, 
Clarke Cavalry. One of the bravest leaders that 
commanded the regiment at any time was John 
Shack Green, lieutenant-colonel, who was severely 
wounded, and on account of some trouble with his 
brigadier commander, Gen. William E. Jones, he 
resigned. 

There were ten companies in my regiment, as 
follows: A and K of Loudoun county; B, Rappa- 
hannock; C, Rockingham; D, Clarke; E, Hali- 




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FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 207 

fax; F, Fairfax; G, Pittsylvania; H, Fauquier; 
I, Orange. 

Brigade. — First, Robertson, and then Gen. Wm. 
E. Jones, who was killed ; then Gen. Lomax, who 
is now living at Gettysburg, Pa. 

Division. — Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Gen. 
Robert E. Lee. He survived the war, and died a 
few months ago. 

Corps. — Commanded by Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, 
who was killed at Yellow Tavern in 1864. He was 
succeeded by Gen. Wade Hampton of South Caro- 
lina, who survived the war and died a few years 
ago. 

Army. — Northern Virginia; commanded first 
by Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, who was succeeded 
by Joseph E. Johnston, who was succeeded by Gen. 
Robert E. Lee, who held the position until the close 
of the war. Lee was also made commander-in- 
chief of all the Confederate armies. 



Chapter XL 

AN AFTER-THOUGHT. 
The Horses. 

"Here lies the steed with his nostril all wide, 
But through it there rolls not the breath of his pride. 
The foam of his gasping lies \\h\\.t on the turf, 
And as cold as the spray of the rock-beaten surf." 

I do not mean to intimate by the headline of this 
chapter that I forgot the horses of Lee's army. 
They were on my mind all through the story, but it 
was not until the manuscript was in the hands of 
the printer that the thought came to me that they 
should have a chapter in this book. Ah ! the horses 
— the blacks and bays, the roans and grays, the sor- 
rels and chestnuts that pulled Lee's army from the 
Rappahannock to Gettysburg and back, and all the 
other horses that pulled and tugged at the wagons, 
at the batteries of artillery; the horses that carried 
the men, the unstablcd horses and the half-fed 
horses. Let my right hand forget its cunning if I 
forget to pay proper tribute to those noble animals 
that suffered so much for their masters. How often 

M8 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 209 

my mind goes back to that horse that I saw coming 
across the field from the front at Bull Run with 
his sides all dripping with blood. He was a hero, 
for he had been out "where the fields were shot, 
sown and bladed thick with steel," and was coming 
back to die. Nearly all the bodies of the men were 
buried, and some horses, for sanitary purposes, 
were covered with earth, and a few may now be 
lying in comfortable graves, marked by marble 
shafts. Lee's gray horse, "Traveler," and Jackson's 
little sorrel, though dead, may yet be seen,* not un- 
like what they were when they bore their riders 
along the battle front. But the bones of all the other 
horses that perished whitened for a while the hills 
and valleys and the roadsides that stretched from 
Gettysburg to Appomattox, and then when the 
war was over, men gathered them up and ground 
them into merchandise to enrich their fields. The 
horses that were alive at the close of the war were, 
for the most part, tenderly cared for, and have long 
ago joined their comrades on the other side. I hope 
they are all grazing together in the green fields of 
Eden. 
How many horses were in Lee's army from be- 



*I have since learned that only "Traveler's" skeleton was oreservfcl. 



210 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

ginning to end and how many perished has never 
been told. Some idea can be formed from the fol- 
lowing statement: 

Such an army as Lee's, of 100,000 men, required 
15,000 draft horses, 10,000 for cavalry, and per- 
haps 1500 to 2000 for the officers, their staffs and 
couriers, making a total of 27,000 horses. Perhaps 
a fair estimate of the number of horses employed in 
the army of Northern Virginia, commanded by 
Gen. Lee in person, from 1861 to 1865, would be 
75,000. Of these, 30,000 may have survived the 
war, the remaining 45,000 perished. Add to these, 
say, 120,000 for the Union army, and we have the 
sum total of 195,000 horses that took part in that 
great drama of which the soil of Virginia was the 
stage. 

My first horse was named Rover. She and I 
were colts together on the farm, I nine years her 
senior. I loved her, but there are doubts about 
her love for me. When young, she could run faster, 
jump higher and cut more "monkey shines" th?.n 
any colt in the neighborhood. More than once she 
landed me on my back in the middle of the road. 
This was before she entered the military service of 
the Confederacy. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 211 

Once my father was on her back crossing a 
stream. He loosened the rein to let her drink. A 
leaf came floating down the stream as peacefully 
as a summer zephyr. This gave Rover an oppor- 
tunity for playing one of her pet tricks. When the 
leaf came in view she pretended to be terribly 
frightened, made a leap forward, and landed my 
father on his'back in the middle of the stream. The 
water furnished so soft a bed that he was unhurt. 
There was a carriage just behind in which Bishop 
Alpheus W. Wilson of the M. E. Church South, 
now living in Baltimore, was riding. I heard him 
tell the story a short time ago, and from the pleas- 
ure with which he related it, I am satisfied that he 
greatly enjoyed the episode at the time, and the re- 
membrance still affords him amusement. The 
good bishop was then a circuit rider on Loudoun 
Circuit, and Rover carried him on her back around 
the circuit. He tried hard to make her a good sad- 
dle-horse, and succeeded. He also tried to improve 
her manners, and while she may have behaved her- 
self when under his eye, it is doubtful whether she 
ever experienced a change of heart. 

I was always suspicious of her, and I had a right 
to be. Sometimes I thought she was opposed to se- 



212 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

cession and worked in the interest of the Union. 
Once she delivered me into the hands of the Yan- 
kees, and tried to do it again and again. She 
seemed to have an affinity for United States horses, 
and always wanted to carry me directly in among 
them. It has already been stated that she had a 
jaw that no bit could hold. If she had been a 
woman we might have thought that it was the re- 
sult of talking too much. What a weapon of 
destruction Samson could have made of her jaw- 
bone! I don't know when and where she joined the 
great majority, for we parted company in the spring 
of 1863 on the banks of the Shenandoah river. I 
deserted her to avoid capture. We never met again, 
unless it was on the opposite sides of the battle line, 
and if so, she took very good care to keep on her 
own side; at least on the side that was opposed to 
my side. It grieved me very much to part with 
her, for, with all her faults, I loved her still. 

The cavalryman and his horse got very close to 
each other, not only physically, but heart to heart. 
They ate together, slept together, marched, fought 
and often died together. Frequently a wounded 
horse would be seen bearing his wounded rider 
back from the front. During Lee's march to 



FROM BULL RUN TO APrOMATTOX. 213 

Gettysburg and back the cavalryman was in touch 
with his horse 18 hours out of 24, and the other six 
hours he was usually close enough to mount at a 
moment's warning. Much of the time, while in 
Pennsylvania, the men slept with their horses tied 
to the wrist. While the rider slept, the horse crop- 
ped the grass around him as far out as his tether 
would allow him, and as close up to his rider's body 
as he could get. Sometimes he would push the 
man's head aside with his nose to get the grass be- 
neath it. I have seen men by the thousands lying 
in this manner in the fields with their horses graz- 
ing about them, yet I never knew a horse to tread 
on one, or in any way injure him. 

On one occasion, near Chambersburg, Pa., the 
men were sleeping with their horses grazing about 
them, when the bugle called us to mount. Some 
time after forming in line I missed one of my mess- 
mates, and called the captain's attention to it. He 
sent me out over the fields in search of him. I 
found him just over the crest of a little hill fast 
asleep, with his horse tied to his wrist. He was ly- 
ing at full length on his back. His horse had 
closely cropped the grass all around him, and as 
far out as he could reach, and so completely had he 



214 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

taken every blade of grass about the soldier that 
when the man got up he left a perfect outline of his 
body on the field. 

On another occasion, when on the way to Gettys- 
burg, we had halted for a rest at Delaplane, Va. 
Having no food for our horses we were ordered to 
turn them loose in the fields to graze. It was lo 
o'clock at night. We unbridled and unsaddled our 
steeds and let them go free. This was in June, and 
the clover was fine. The hungry animals went 
briskly to work satisfying their hunger. The grind- 
ing of their many jaws sounded like the muffled 
roar of a distant cataract, and this was the music 
that lulled the weary men to sleep as they lay scat- 
tered over the fields, without any fear of being hurt 
or trodden upon. But suppose Kilpatrick had sud- 
denly appeared upon the scene and had thrown a 
few shells into those fields? What would have 
been the result? You can trust a horse so far and 
no farther. A field full of unbridled and fright- 
ened horses might have brought death and destruc- 
tion, and swept Stuart's cavalrymen from the face 
of the earth. But no such fatality occurred. About 
2 o'clock in the morning the bugle sounded "saddle 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 21^ 

up," and although it was quite dark, in an incred- 
ibly short time every man was mounted on his own 
horse and on the march. 

There were times when the cavalry would march 
all night. The men soon learned to sleep on horse- 
back, or you might call it nodding, but some went 
sound asleep sitting upright on their horses. Oc- 
casionally, when a soldier was caught fast asleep, 
his comrade would slip the rein out of his hand and 
lead his horse to a fence corner and hitch it. The 
sudden stopping would awaken him, for he would 
at once begin to fall. Catching himself, he would 
look around in amazement, and if the night were 
dark, he had no little difficulty finding his place in 
the ranks. 

Little episodes similar to this would help to while 
away the weary hours of the night. Then there was 
always some wit or wag who, at intervals of an 
hour or so, would arouse the whole line with some 
ridiculous outburst. A dark and stormy night al- 
ways called for something extraordinary in this 
line in order to keep the men in good cheer. Aftep 
perhaps an hour of silence, during which time not a 
sound could be heard save the clatter of the horses' 
feet, the rattle of the soldiers' armor and the 
splatter of the rain, suddenly someone with the 



2l6 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

voice of a foghorn would rouse up and yell out, 
"I want to go h-o-m-e, and I am sick, that's what I 
want." Then some other fellow far up or down the 
line would answer back, "I want to see my 
m-o-t-h-e-r, and I am hungry, too, that's what I 
want." This was said in a sobbing tone, as if the 
speaker were about to burst into tears. It would 
set the whole column off, and for half an hour or so 
there would be a lively time. 

If we were passing a residence, either humble or 
stately,someonewould haltinfrontof itand"Hello" 
until he saw a window-sash go up and a head poked 
out, with the usual question "What is it you want?" 
The reply would be, "Say, Mister, you had better 
take your chimney in, it's going to rain." Then be- 
fore the angry countryman could get his gun the 
f unmaker would gallop off to his place in the ranks. 
And thus the night was passed. 

No amount of hardship or deprivation seemed to 
dampen the ardor of the cavalier. He always had 
resources, and when in need, they were drawn 
upon; but the horses, like Felix, cared for none of 
these things. They seemed to say, "Have all the 
fun you want, boys, it doesn't disturb us, but don't 
forget that when we have crossed the river there 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 217 

will be something more serious for you to do; we 
are following the feather of Stuart tonight." And 
thus they would trudge on ; it mattered not whether 
storm or calm, they moved in silence, each horse 
following the one in front of him, or yielding to 
the gentle pressure of the rein if the rider had oc- 
casion to leave the ranks. 

Of course, this condition existed only when we 
were not in proximity to the enemy. When the 
bluecoats were about things were different. Every 
man had his horse well in hand; the spur and the 
rein told the horse where he must go ; the men were 
silent; only the officers spoke. 

The horses were fairly well supplied with food 
until after Gettysburg. Then when winter came 
and there was no grass and no growing grain, food 
for Lee's 27,000 horses became a serious problem. 
I have pulled dried grass in December for my horse 
until my fingers bled. At other times, when food 
was more plentiful, the horse was required to share 
his food with his master, particularly in roasting- 
ear time. Then our rations were often the same. 
We cooked ours, while the horse took his raw. 
But during the winter months, when we needed 
some kind of beverage to wash down our hardtack, 



2l8 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

the only thing we could get was horse feed, which 
was roasted and boiled. We called it coffee. It 
was very good then. We had to rob our horses for 
this, and we all felt mean when we did it. A table- 
spoonful, however, was all that each man had to 
take from his horse for a cup of coffee. The winter 
after the battle of Gettysburg food got scarcer and 
scarcer for both man and beast, and the horses be- 
came thinner and thinner. 

The Confederate cavalryman furnished and 
owned his own horse. If his horse was killed or 
disabled in battle, the Government, in most cases, 
provided another; but if a soldier lost his horse 
in any other way, he was required to replace it or 
be transferred to some other branch of the service. 
This brought to the cavalry of the army, men who 
owned horses, were accustomed to handle horses, 
were lovers of horses, and, with few exceptions, 
were good riders. The love of the cavalryman for 
his horse was intensified by his having to share 
with him the dangers of camp and field. Ow- 
ing to this bond of affection between the two, the 
horses seldom suffered for want of attention. This 
is why Gen. Stuart could keep his horses on a dead 
march for 90 miles at a stretch and make his re- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 219 

markable raids around the Union army and in and 
through the enemy's territory successfully. 

When a raid or a long march was in contempla- 
tion every cavalryman was ordered to have his 
horse's feet examined, reshod, if necessary, and take 
with him two extra shoes and twenty-four nails. 
There was always someone in each company skill- 
ful enough to tack these shoes on if one came off 
during the march. If the horse lost a shoe, he could 
not go many miles before he would drop from the 
ranks, placing the cavalryman on foot. 

TWO BLACK HORSES IN BATTLE. 

The following incident was told me by a new- 
found friend, W. J. Sanborn, who delights to call 
himself a Yank of the Twenty-seventh Iowa In- 
fantry: 

"In the midst of the battle a Confederate regi- 
ment of cavalry came upon the field and formed in 
line of battle just across our front. Almost instantly 
they were met by a volley from our rifles. In the 
front rank, side by side, were two fine black horses 
that in that volley lost their riders. They fell from 
their saddles. The two horses, feeling their riders 
fall, and becoming instantly excited, as if by com- 



220 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

mon consent sprang forward and started towards 
our lines. Our men, seeing these magnificent black 
horses riderless, with empty saddles, swinging stir- 
rups, swaying bridle reins, heads up and manes fly- 
ing, dashing towards them in a crazy, aimless way, 
ceased firing and opened their ranks, cheering 
them as they passed through, word having been 
passed down the line, 'Don't shoot the horses.' 
Rushing on at breakneck speed until they reached 
the immediate rear of our lines, then slowing up 
for an instant, raising their heads higher and taking 
a quick look about them, swung to the left, describ- 
ing a circle of about two miles, and finally bringing 
up in their original places, coming in from the rear 
of their own lines and stopping where, a few mo- 
ments before, with their riders on their backs, they 
had stood. They had kept, so far as could be seen, 
neck and neck. Upon resuming their positions in 
the ranks they were greeted with cheers by both 
sides. It was a wonderful incident, and every man 
who saw it paid the highest respect possible to the 
beautiful black horses. *I just love a horse,' is the 
language of every soldier who rode one in the 
war. " 

I do not know how others felt about the bodies 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 221 

of the dead horses that lay scattered over the battle- 
fields, but the sight distressed me almost as much 
as did the bodies of the soldiers. They were so 
faithful and unfaltering. When the bugle sounded, 
any hour of the night, or any hour of the day, re- 
gardless of how short a time they had rested or how 
many miles they had marched, they were always 
ready to respond. They knew all the bugle calls. 
If it were saddle up, or the feed or the water call, 
they were as ready to answer one as the other. And 
they were so noble and so brave in battle. They 
seemed to love the sound of the guns. The cavalry- 
man might lie low on the neck of his horse for 
shelter as the missiles of death hissed about him, but 
the horse never flinched, except when struck. 

The cavalrj^man often used his horse for a breast- 
work while he fired over his back, the horse stand- 
ing like a Casabianca on the burning deck of his 
father's ship. Did you ever read "Black Beauty?" 
If you have not, read it. Lee had 75,000 "Black 
[Beauties" in his army, every one of which, or nearly 
every one, is worthy of a monument. We build 
monuments for our dead soldiers, for those wc 
know and for the unknown dead. What would 



222 FROM BULL RUN TO A^rO^L\TTOX. 

you think of a monument some day, somewhere in 
Virginia, in honor of Lee's noble horses? 

I hardly know which branch of the service ought 
to receive the highest honor, the wagon horses, the 
artillery horses or the cavalry horses. I was very 
close to the latter, and knew them better, but the 
wagon and artillery horses also had a warm place in 
my heart. To see the wagon horses hitched to heavy, 
loaded wagons, with shells falling around them, 
with no way of escape, was pathetic. To see the 
artillery horses torn to pieces by shells that were 
not intended for them touched a tender chord, and if 
I should be asked to write their names on the roll 
of fame, perhaps it would be in the order in which 
I have named them. 

The cavalry horse, however, was my pet, and I 
should not want to see him any less honored than 
the former, for they all had their places. Farra- 
gut, in the rigging of his flagship giving orders, was 
all right, but a wooden Indian would have done 
about as well if the coal-shoveler below had failed 
to do his duty. What could Gen. Lee have done 
had all his horses balked in unison? Nothing. 
Then all honor to Lee's horses, who pulled and 




li/snop ALr'nKr:.s w. wilson, 

Who (r;ilii('«| Udvi-r. 
Who Howflh «oo«) K<-c(l Khali mjn-ly ritii, ■ 
{, ^f'i'V K''"WK rhh (iH It Krow<;ih old, 
And llf«;H iHtcHt kiiikIk iir<; IlK HurnlK of koM ' 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 223 

hauled and fought and died that this might be a 
very great nation! 

No more appropriate lines could be had for the 
ending of this story than the following touching 
little poem by Francis Alexander Durivage: 

"There hangs a sabre, and there a rein, 
With a rusty buckle and green curb chain; 
A pair of spurs on the old gray wall, 
And a moldy saddle — well, that is all. 

"Come out to the stable — it is not far; 
The moss-grown door is hanging ajar. 
Look within ! There's an empty stall, 
Where once stood a charger, and that is all. 

"The good black horse came riderless home. 
Flecked with blood drops as well as foam; 
See yonder hillock where dead leaves fall ; 
The good black horse dropped dead — that is alL 

"All ? O, God ! it is all I can speak. 
Question me not, I am old and weak ; 
His sabre and his saddle hang on the wall, 
And his horse is dead — I have told you all." 



CHAPTER XII. 
What JVe Did After the War. 

Yes, give me the land 

Of tlic wreck and tlic tomb; 
There's grandeur in graves — 

There's glory in gloom. 
For out of the gloom 

Future brightness is born; 
As, after the night. 

Looms the sunrise of morn. 

The end came suddenly, and was a great blow to 
most of us. Whatever our leaders and others high 
in authority may have known, the army (in the 
main), the women and children and the old men 
at home were totally unprepared for the rude shock 
brought by the news of Lee's surrender. The foun- 
dation of our hope was this : We believed as firmly 
as we believed anything that our cause was just and 
that God was on our side. We did not believe in 
slavery, but we believed that it was unjust to the 
slaves and unjust to their owners to free them. We 
did not believe in secession, but we seceded because 
we thought. that that.vvas the only thing left for us 
to do. Just what was to be the future of the negro 
race was a problem that we felt would be worked 
out in the future, and in solving the problem we 

224 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 225 

felt sure that wc had God as our helper. Besidcg 
this, nearly, if not quite, all our leaders were sin- 
cere, Godly men. For instance, where would you 
find a more learned, cultivated, refined Christian 
gentleman than the President of the Southern Con- 
federacy? He was not a secessionist. The North, 
of course, looked upon him as tlic arch-rebel of the 
whole South, but his record tells a different story. 
Did you ever read a book entitled "Recollections 
and Letters of General Robert E. Lee," by his son, 
Capt. Robert E. Lcc? Tlicsc letters, written to 
members of his family, his other relatives and 
friends, were full of reference to God. In the 
whole book there is hardly a letter that does not in 
some way refer to the Divine Creator. What a 
stalwart Christian was that thunderbolt of war, 
"Stonewall" Jackson! He would fight a battle on 
Sunday, but he always set aside one day in the week 
to be kept as the Sabbath, and after every battle he 
called his army together for prayer and praise. 
Perhaps it is not too much to say that no man ever 
lived closer to his God than did Thomas Jonathan 
Jackson. Plis most trusted lieutenant. Gen. Ewell, 
was, during the first stages of the war, a profane 
man, but through the influence of his chief he be- 



226 FROM BULL -RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

came a devout Christian. Who would pick out 
that gay, dashing cavalier, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, as 
a model Christian character? Those who knew 
him best would testify to the fact that he was. The 
day after he received his mortal wound President 
Davis was standing at his bedside. In reply to a 
question as to how he felt, he answed: "Easy, but 
willing to die if God wills it." A few moments 
afterwards he said: "I am -going fast now. I am 
resigned. God's will be done." And thus he died. 
Besides the foregoing officers, I might go on nam- 
ing leader after leader, all of whom were known as 
men who feared God. I almost forgot to name the 
Vice-President of the Confederacy, Alexander H. 
Stephens, esteemed and honored North and South 
for his Christian integrity. 

Then there was a deep religious sentiment per- 
vading the entire-^army during the four years of 
strife. Each regiment had its chaplain; there was 
always regular Divine service every Sabbath when 
possible, prayer-meetings during the week, and 
often revival services, especially during the winter 
months. Our chaplain's name was Davis. He was 
an Episcopal minister, and did more, perhaps, to 
instill courage, fortitude and Christian principles 



FROM B-ULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 227 

in the hearts of the men than any other agency. 
When the men were mounting and forming in line 
of battle, he was nearly always the first in the sad- 
dle, and having placed himself in the front of the 
regiment, at the side of the colonel, just before the 
command "Forward" was given, he took off his hat 
and raised his hand towards Heaven. At this signal 
every soldier responded by lifting his hat and bow- 
ing his head; then followed a fervent prayer. 
Sometimes the prayer was not a dozen words, but 
he was always accorded time for a prayer of some 
length, and although we knew that this could not 
stop the bullets, at the same time we somehow felt 
that it was a wall of defense about us, and we were 
braver for having had it. 

What was true of our regiment was, perhaps, true 
of every other regiment in the army. These were 
the things that made us strong and hopeful to the 
last. When the end came, and our hopes were not 
realized, we still felt that our cause was just and 
that our God would in some way make it all right. 
Perhaps it may sound a little irreverent to say so, 
but we had a kind of feeling that God was indebted 
to us for our implicit trust in Him, and that in some 
way, we did not know how, He would pay the debt. 



228 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Accordingly, when the war was over, we were 
ready to lay down our arms and become true and 
loyal subjects of the United States and go to work 
to repair our losses. I do not mean to convey the 
idea that we were an army of angels, but I do mean 
to say that, as a people, we had put our trust in God, 
believing our cause to be just. 

That part of Virginia ravaged by the armies, 
when compared with what it was in the spring of 
1861, was now a howling wilderness. The fences, 
the barns, the mills, farming implements, horses, 
cattle, sheep, swine and poultry were almost all 
swept away. When we came straggling back to our 
homes we looked like so many prodigal sons, and 
if a physician had taken an inventory of our stom- 
achs he would have declared that every mother's 
son of us felt like a prodigal; but the physician's 
diagnosis would in one respect have been wrong, 
for deep down in our hearts was a conviction which 
told us that we had fought a good fight and that 
some day all the world would say that the principle 
for which we had contended was right. But we 
were surely hungry. ''Three days after the surren- 
der," says Long, "the Army of Northern Virginia 
had dispersed in every direction, and three weeks 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 229 

later the veterans of a hundred battles had ex- 
changed the musket and the sword for the imple- 
ments of husbandry. It is worthy of remark that 
never before was there an^army disbanded with less 
disorder. Thousands of soldiers were set adrift on 
the world without a penny in their pockets to en- 
able them to reach their homes. Yet none of the 
scenes of riot that often follow the disbanding of 
armies marked their course." 

One thing that impressed and depressed us 
greatly was the blackened walls where once stood 
the mills that had furnished us bread, the stafif of 
life. These were all gone. The long race above 
and the tailrace below were covered with mud and 
slime and overgrown with rank weeds, and all the 
water ran over the dam. When would these be re- 
built and when would we have corn to grind? This 
was the latter part of April. It took some days for 
us to discover where we were. If we planted the 
crop in May, it would be months before the har- 
vest. We had plenty of Confederate money, but it 
was of no value now. A serious problem confronted 
us. Just how we lived until the fall crops were har- 
vested I really do not know, and I do not think any- 
one else knows. But Gen. Grant had magnan- 



230 FROM BULL RUN TO APPO^LATTOX. 

imously allowed us to keep our horses, and if Gen. 
Grant had done nothing else deserving of fame 
those words of his, *'Let the cavalrymen keep their 
horses; they will need them for putting in their 
spring crops," would entitle him to a seat among 
those whom the world calls great. 

These horses were our salvation. While swords 
were being turned into plowshares, we were turn- 
ing cavalry horses into plow horses. It was May 
before we fully realized, in the language of an- 
other, "where we were at." There was time, how- 
ever, for a crop of corn, and we resolutely went to 
work to scratch the ground and plant the seed. For 
the most part, our slaves remained with us and as- 
sisted in putting in this first crop. The merchants 
went North and had no trouble getting goods on 
credit, for prices were falling rapidly and all 
wanted to sell. As soon as the crop was planted the 
farmer pledged a certain part of it to the merchant 
for supplies, and in this way we got a start. We 
had made our gardens, and in the fall we had vege- 
tables for the table, bread from our corn crops and 
clothing from the merchants. We were beginning 
to feel like peaceful citizens. 

Some time during the summer the former slaves 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 23 1 

began to wake up to the fact that they were freed- 
men, and got restless. All through my section and 
adjoining counties there was an inclination among 
them to go to Washington. They wanted to sec 
about that "forty acres and a mule." It was too 
much like continuing in slavery to remain with 
their former masters; they seemed unable to realize 
that they were freedmen until they had got away. 
Accordingly, many of them left their old homes, 
but not all. Some remained in the families the rest 
of their lives. 

We had been for a long time without postofTices, 
mail routes, magistrates, courts and everything of 
that kind. Throughout the war those at home 
wrote letters to their friends in the army and re- 
ceived letters in reply. These missives were car- 
ried by men who were passing to and fro, and it is 
remarkable with what regularity letters found their 
destination. It was a rare thing that mail miscar- 
ried or was lost. A letter once written and sealed, 
no stamp being necessary, was handed to anyone 
passing along the road. He would carry it as far 
as he was going, and then hand it to someone else. 
Sooner or later it would turn up in the hands of the 
one to whom it was addressed. In the course of 



232 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

time postofficcs were opened and there were regu- 
lar mall deliveries. The Virginia Legislature 
promptly passed a law forbidding the collection of 
old debts for a term of years. The only debts that 
were collectible were those that were incurred after 
the cessation of hostilities. 

No one suffered any great hardship after the first 
crops had ripened. At my own home, as soon as 
the crop was in, we all began making repairs 
around the place. Fence rails were the best of fuel 
for camp-fire, and as long as a fence rail could be 
had no soldier was going to cut down a tree for a 
fire; hence anything combustible in the way of a 
board or a rail had gone up in smoke and flame. I 
remember getting some boards from a sawmill to 
restore our yard fence, and in nailing up one of the 
boards I noticed that the saw had cut through a bul- 
let. For aught I know, the bullet is there yet, a 
mute reminder of the day when the "Assyrian came 
down like a wolf on the fold." Many a tree felt the 
sting of a bullet that was not intended for it. 

Guns, pistols, cartridge boxes, swords, sabres and a 
hundred and one other things, relics of the war, were 
for many years continually appearing. While these 
things are less common now, in every home you will 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOA/IATTOX. 233 

Still find something of this sort hanging on the wall 
or stowed away in closets. Many of the old houses 
show marks of the strife; bullets and cannon balls 
are still picked up in the fields, and doubtless they 
will continue to be found as long as the plow turns 
the sod, making it impossible to forget the war-time 
scenes if one tried. When it is remembered that in 
Spottsylvania county more great battles were 
fought and more men killed and wounded than 
upon any other like area in the world, one can 
imagine, perhaps, how many tons of lead and of 
iron are now lying scattered over that spot of 
ground. More men fell in that little county in the 
four years of the Civil War than Great Britain has 
lost in all her wars in a century. 

There were some among us who had deserted the 
army in the hour of its greatest need. Now that 
peace had come, these came out from their hiding 
places ill at case. The faithful would have no fel- 
lowship with the deserter. All such carried, or will 
carry, their disgrace to their graves. There were 
some, however, who were not classed as deserters, 
although they were caught at home without leave 
when the end came. One of these was an old fellow 
living in the Blue Ridge mountains, not far from 



234 y^OM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

my home. He was over 60, and was in the army as 
a substitute. When, at the expiration of my parole, 
I was on my way back, to the army for the last time, 
I passed a small log house in an isolated clearing 
deep in the mountains. I had gone a hundred yards 
or so beyond when I heard a call behind me. I 
turned, rode back, and soon recognized one of my 
company, the old man referred to. He said to me: 
*'Tell Capt. Gibson I hain't left him yit. I'm com- 
in' back just as soon as I put in a crap er corn," and 
he meant just what he said. The old man was home 
on a furlough, and his time had expired, but he 
could not let his family starve away off there in the 
mountains. He had no slaves to plow his rocky 
hillside fields. As soon as his corn was in the 
ground he w^ould have mounted his horse for the 
front. There were many such, but these were not 
classed as deserters. 

As long as we continued to live the simple life 
we were, after the first crop had been gathered, in 
a measure free from burdens; but, notwithstanding 
our four years' experience in living on little or 
nothing and dressing in the plainest garb, tlie same 
old human craving for the toys, the gewgaws and 
the thousand and one unnecessary things that civ- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 235 

ilized people will have, even if they must plunge 
into debt to get them, gradually took possession of 
us all, and wherever we could get credit we bought 
these things. We began as soon as our crops were 
planted by mortgaging them to the merchant for 
supplies. This policy was kept up until nearly 
everything valuable was mortgaged, and under this 
load my part of Virginia, and perhaps the whole 
of the South, groaned and suffered for years. If we 
had lived for ten years as economically as we had 
done during the four years of war, the South at the 
end of that time would have been as prosperous 
and as free from debt as it is today. 

I said in the beginning that every laddie had his 
lassie. Yes, and many a lassie lost her laddie, and 
some of the laddies came back to their lassies minus 
an arm or a leg, and sometimes both, and one poor 
fellow that I knew of lost both arms and both legs. 
But in most cases the lassies were faithful. Those 
who came back alive were taken (what was left of 
them) for better or for worse, and soon after the 
surrender wedding bells were ringing everywhere. 
One young Benedict, however, got impatient and 
would not wait for the end of the war, but in the 
winter of 1864-65 slipped away from the regiment 



236 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

and hied himself off to his sweetheart's home, hav- 
ing previously arranged for a marriage ceremony. 
Her home was just in the rear of the picket line, on 
the banks of the river. It was a cold, foggy night 
in January. Our picket reserve was near this house. 
We could hear the music and dancing, and by the 
light from the windows could see the figures as they 
flitted to and fro across the banqueting hall. After 
a while there was silence and the lights went out, 
but all was not quiet along the Rapidan. A large 
body of union cavalry, under a reckless leader, had 
crossed the river somewhere between the pickets 
and had got behind us, and, as ill-luck would have 
it, in their march they passed this house. Just how 
they discovered that a Confederate soldier was 
there no one knows, but somehow they knew it, and, 
surrounding the house just as day was breaking, 
they called him out. He appeared and explained 
the situation, but the admonition that the minister 
had given just a short time before, "What God hath 
joined together let no man put asunder," had no 
terrors for the marauding Yanks. The young 
bride's tears and cries were unavailing. Perhaps 
the Yanks thought that the Golden Rule did not 
apply in times of war. Under a military escort the 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 237 

groom took a bridal tour North, leaving his bride 
behind. We at the picket post heard cries and lam- 
entations coming from the house, sounds which 
proved our salvation. Whether the cries came from 
the groom or the bride, or both, or from the parents, 
we could not tell ; but, scenting danger, we mounted 
our horses and quickly vanished. 

All the lassies, however, were not faithful. Now 
and then a soldier at the front received a wound 
that hurt worse than the sting of the bullet. One 
of these so wounded was a distinguished Confeder- 
ate soldier, after the war a leading lawyer and ora- 
tor of Atlanta, Ga. He received this wound while 
fighting ih the trenches at Atlanta. From the 
woman to whom he had pledged his troth came a 
letter telling him of her love for another. When he 
heard of her marriage he fired a shot back at her in 
the form of a 12-stanza poem — a shot which must 
be rankling in her breast today if she is living. This 
took place while the Colonel was still in the 
trenches. He was never known to write poetry, so 
this was his first and probably his only poetic pro- 
duction. A copy of the poem was found among his 
papei-s after his death. I give four stanzas of it — 
the first, the last and two others. He addressed his 
faithless lassie as "Oenone" (pronounced E-no-ne). 



238 FROM BULL RUN TO ArrO.\L\TTOX. 

"I sit by the door of my tent tonight 

Watching the drifting clouds, 
With wliich the moon, like a trained coquette, 

The Hglit of her beauty shrouds ; 
The star-crossed banner iloats o'er my head, 

With a silken, rustling sound, 
And I hear distinctly the sentinel's tread, 

In the silence that reigns around. 

They tell me you looked like a queen that night 

As you murnnirmed the marriage vow — 
That the orange wreath of your bridal veil 

Looked sullied beside your brow ; 
They tell me your laughter was blithe and gay, 

That your step was light and proud, 
And j'ou lavished the smiles that once were mme 

On a senseless, flattering crowd. 

Did you think of the tears that dimmed that smile, 

When your scarf for my sword you gave. 
And I swore it should meet in the battle's shock 

The bravest of the brave ? 
That scarf is steeped in my own red blood, 

Yet I laugh in my bitter scorn 
To think how false is the beautiful one 

By whotn it once was worn. 

Tomorrow, 'Oenonc.' the gray, cold morn 

Will dawn on a field of death, 
And the starry cross that is drooping now 

Float out in the cannon's breath. 
My brave men fight for their homes, their loves, 

But I with a grim despair, 
For all that is left me of all the past 

Is a tress of woman's hair." 

This tragic story was a dead soldier's secret, not 
intended for publication, but I found it in print 
and have reproduced it here that the readers of this 



GOOD OLD RKBEl. WAR SONG 

The Homespun Dress 

Oh, yes! I am a Southern girl, 

And glory in the name, 
And boast it with far greater pride 

Than glittering wealth or fame. 

Chorus 

Hurrah! Hurrah! for the Sunny South so dear: 
Three cheers for the homespun dress the Southern 
ladies wear! 

I envy not the Northern girl. 

Her robes of beauty rare, 
Though diamonds grace her snowy neck, 

And pearls bedeck her hair. 

The homespun dress is plain, I know. 

My hat's palmetto, too ; 
Hut, then, it shows what Southern girls 

P'or Southern rights will do. 

We've sent the bravest from our land 

To battle with the foe ; 
And we would lend a helping hand — 

We love the South, you know. 

Now Northern goods are out of date, 

And since Old Abe's blockade 
We Southern girls can live content 

With goods that's Southern-made. 

We'd scorn to wear a bit of silk, 

A bit of Northern lace; 
But make our homespun dresses up, 

And wear them with much grace. 



This Southern land's a trlorious land. 

And hor's a jilorious cause ; 
So here's three cheers to Southern Rights, 

And tor the Southern Roys. 

^Ve've sent our sweethearts to the war, 

But. dear girls, never mind ; 
The soldier lad will not forget 

The girl lie left beliind. 

A soldier is the lad for me, 

A brave heart I adore ; 
And when this Sunny South is free. 

And fighting is no more, 

111 choose me then a lover brave 

From out that gallant band. 
The soldier lad that I love most 

Shall have my heart and hand. 

And now, young man, a w ord to you : 

If you would win the fair, 
Go to the field where honor calls 

And win your lady there. 

Remember that our brightest smiles 

Are for the true and brave, 
And that our tears fall for the one 

That fills a soldier's grave. 

Chorus 

Hurrah! Hurrah! for the Sunny South so dear: 
Three cheers for the homespun dress the Southern 
ladies wear ! 




A ItATTLE-SCAHPiED CONFKDKKATK r.AXMOK. 



"Take tbat banner (lowii: lis tattered 
IJrokeu is its shaft aud slia tiered." 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 239 

book may have at least a glimpse of that vast field 
of unexplored tragedy which is as much a part of 
the history of the Civil War as anything that has 
been w^ritten or spoken. Some of the most interest- 
ing and thrilling events of that great drama will 
forever remain untold. He who would know the 
whole Civil War story must give full play to his 
imagination, aided by such facts as the actors may 
choose to reveal; and, in searching that field, re- 
member this: the love of a lover on the battlefield 
is very different from the love of a lover in the corn- 
field. The transformation of the citizen into the 
willing soldier at a time when the fate of his nation 
is his care lifts the man up to a plane and into an 
atmosphere where the best that is in him can de- 
velop. It is then that the woman whose scarf the 
soldier ties to the hilt of his sword becomes the very 
heart of his country, and when he sees that token 
of hers steeped in his own red blood, he smiles and 
says, "She is my country and my all, and I will die 
for her." "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's 
country," but many a Civil War hero has had to 
live and carry all alone a secret to cloud forever the 
light of his sunniest smile. 

These unwritten tragedies that followed in the 



240 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

wake of the battles, that came stalking out from 
behind prison walls; these memories that, like Ban- 
quo's ghost, won't down ; these war secrets that have 
been kept because they were too sacred to tell — all 
must be considered if the reader wishes to know the 
whole war story and how the survivors occupied 
their time and thoughts. 

There is something else to be remembered. 
When, in the stillness of the night, a picket was shot 
as he walked to and fro on his beat, it meant little 
to the nation — only one man gone. To the dying 
picket, as, all alone, he moaned out the death rattle, 
this was the bloodiest battle of all the war; but 
when the news reached the little trundle bed in the 
little low hut far away in the hollow on the moun 
tain, it went no farther, because there was no one to 
spread the news. There were thousands of these 
bloody battles, but history does not record them. 
These were the dead that were buried where they 
fell, if buried at all, the places of their burial being 
in many cases as isolated as their homes. Some of 
the best soldiers in the army came from mountain 
fastnesses, but the writers of history have not 
thought it worth while to search these humble 
abodes for material. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 24I 

There were thousands of others who could tell 
thrilling and interesting incidents if they could 
speak. I refer to those who were on the rim of the 
battlefields when they received their death wounds, 
and were overlooked in the general burial that fol- 
lowed each battle. Many of these might have lived 
if they had been reached in time. Some fell in the 
deep-tangled wildwood, some in the ravines, some 
along the river banks, others out in the tall grass of 
the field. These were the soldiers reported missing 
when the accounts were sent in. In the smoke and 
dust and confusion of the battle no one saw them 
fall, so they were left to perish after hours or days 
of sufifering. When the armies had moved on, relic 
hunters may have found their bodies and covered 
them with earth, where many of them remain to 
this day. Some, however, who had influential or 
well-to-do friends may have been recovered and 
given honorable sepulcher, but the great majority 
of them await the general resurrection. 

A short time after the surrender an old mother 
from one of those homes found her way to Rich- 
mond in search of the body of her son who was said 
to have been killed in one of the battles around 
Richmond. She was as persistent as the Syro- 



242 FROM BULL RUN TO A^^O^L\TTOX. 

Phoenician woman in search of a cure for her 
daughter, and was determined not to go back until 
she carried ^vith her the remains of her boy. Her 
persistent fidelity brought its reward, for she went 
home satisfied. Some of those to whom she ap- 
pealed were so moved by her entreaties that they 
gathered up a lot of loose bones, and, putting them 
into a rude pine box, presented them to her as the 
remains of her son. She took them back and buried 
them in the orchard close by her home. 

I will pass over the reconstruction days. This 
subject has been thoroughly threshed out, and both 
sides seem to agree that it is a dark spot on the pages 
of our history. It is human to err. It is divine to 
forget and forgive. 

We had another trouble, which I may speak of 
because the historian has almost entirely ignored 
it. This mostly concerns the women of the South. 
Many books have been written about the noble 
part they played in the war — their fortitude, their 
fidelity, their cheerfulness, their tender care of the 
wounded and sick — but when peace came they had 
one trouble that bothered them more than the re- 
construction episode. With all her good qualities, 
a woman has her frailties and limitations. For in- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 243 

Stance, she cannot hit a target— at least she could 
not in those days. I should not, however, like 'to 
trust the "New Woman." The woman of the South 
50 years ago, in her sweet simplicity, left many 
things for the man to do that the women now think 
they can do better. In those good old days the 
women had very little practice in defensive war- 
fare. The men fought their battles, guarded and 
protected them, and hence there was no necessity 
for target practice among the women. A woman 
did, however, every now and then, essay to throw 
a stone at a chicken that she found scratching in her 
flower bed, but the window behind her was in as 
much danger of being broken as the neck of the 
chicken before her. Again, wherever she went a 
man went with her, and she relied upon him to 
escort her to her destination. She did not concern 
herself about the points of the compass; he was her 
guiding star; he took her where she wanted to go 
and brought her back. It so happened, however, 
that during hostilities the men were all away, fight- 
ing in the army, and while the alien armies were 
marching to and fro through the country, some- 
times pillaging the homes (th's, however, was done 
generally by stragglers, and not by the regular sol- 



244' FRO^I BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

diers, who kept in the ranks), it became necessary 
to hide the household valuables — the silver, the 
'jewelry and other trinkets. This fell to the lot of 
the women. They put their treasures into boxes 
and buried them a short distance from the premises. 
They expected, of course, when the time came, to 
go right to the spot and dig them up and put them 
back into their homes, but having no intelligent 
idea of location, they in many instances lost their 
reckoning, and then the trouble began. It may be 
an exaggeration, but I might almost say that as 
much earth was excavated in trying to rediscover 
these buried articles as has been thrown up in the 
construction of the Panama Canal, and, like unto 
the case of Capt. Kidd's hidden treasures, the 
search still goes on, and doubtless will continue to 
go on from generation to generation. Of course, 
many of these boxes have been unearthed. 

I have already spoken of the strong bond of 
friendship existing between the children of the 
slaveholder and the slaves. It could not have bee-n 
otherwise. These children were the slaves' confi- 
dants. They wrote for them their love letters and 
read to them the letters that came in return. They 
arranged for them their weddings and were the 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 245 

chief mourners at their funerals. What little edu- 
cation the slaves got was imparted to them mainly 
by these same children. I cannot speak with cer- 
tainty about the slaveowners themselves, but for 
their children I can say that deep down in their 
hearts was the belief that the slave would one day 
be free, and this feeling was born of a desire that 
it might be so. I feel quite sure that if this leaven 
had been left alone it would in time have solved the 
slavery question to the satisfaction of the entire 
country, but our friends in the North thought the 
leaven worked too slowly, and they came down, 
first, in the person of John Brown and tried to 
hurry things up. Many a good cook has spoiled a 
batch of dough by the forcing process. This inter- 
ference in our State Rights kitchen ended in a big 
row. It looked at one time as though the whole 
establishment would be wrecked; but we will not 
quarrel over it now. What we want to do is to 
repair the damage, and it is gradually being done. 
There is one thing, however, that the South has 
lost which it will never get back. Our mills and 
our barns have been replaced, our lands are free 
of mortgage, we have got back our cattle and our 
wealth; but the times and conditions that gave 



246 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

birth to songs like "My Old Kentucky Home," 
"Down on the Suvvanee River" and others are gone 
forever. Ah! they v^^ere the times when life in the 
South was one sweet dream. Harriet Beecher 
Stowe's bloodhounds may bark on for a century 
longer, but not until the last faithful old slave has 
been buried will the South fail of a witness to tes- 
tify to the good old times when the "young folks 
rolled on the little cabin floor, all merry, all happy, 
all bright." We do not want slavery back, but we 
cannot help longing for the good old cooks and 
housemaids and farm hands and for the old tur- 
baned mammy who regulated the household. 
These are the things that we miss most. The old- 
time darkey has gone forever. 

"He hunts no more for the 'possum and the coon 
On the meadow, the hill and the shore ; 
He sings no more, by the ghmmer of the moon, 
On the bench by the old cabin door." 

So we'll give a sigh for the old Virginia home 
and go on with our story. 

This is April 9, 1910. Just 45 years ago today 
the Southern Confederacy received its death-blow 
at Appomattox, and died shortly afterwards amid 
mingled expressions of sorrow and joy from one 
end of the land to the other, and even beyond the 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 247 

seas. Every passing year contributes something 
towards healing the wounds and repairing the 
losses growing out of the four years of strife and 
carnage. I wish I could publish the letters that 
are continually coming to me from the old soldiers 
of the North who have read the first edition of this 
book. They all breathe sentiments of true friend- 
ship, and nearly all begin, "My dear old comrade." 
As I open these letters and read their contents, I 
say to myself, "Has the millennium come? Have 
we at last discovered each other?" It does seem to 
me that the time has really come when we may say 
in the language of the prophet, "There shall be no 
more war." 

I have a booklet written by Maj.-Gen. St. Clair 
A. Mulholland, who was colonel of the One hun- 
dred and sixteenth Pennsylvania Regiment, and 
who has written a history of the regiment. The 
title of the booklet is "Heroism of the American 
Volunteer." In it the author, in describing the 
action of the soldiers of the Civil War in battle, 
makes no distinction, but mingles the regiments of 
the North and of the South together in such a way 
that the reader has to be careful in order to discover 
that they are not side by side, fighting a common 



248 FROM BULL RUN TO A^^O^LV^TOX. 

foe. To Gen. Mulholland they are all American 
soldiers, ''the most heroic the world has ever 
known." He says that in the Union army alone at 
Gettysburg there were 63 regiments that suffered 
each a loss of over 50 per cent, in killed and 
wounded, and some ran up as high as 71 per cent. 
In no other war in the history of the world is there 
a record of any regiment or other similar body of 
troops in which the losses reached 50 per cent, in 
a single en2;a2:ement. 

Another book, by John L. Smith of Philadel- 
phia, the historian of the One hundred and eigh- 
teenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, is also worthy of 
mention here. The author of the book entered the 
army at 16, tramped all through Virginia with a 
musket on his shoulder, fought in 27 battles, was 
wounded three times, was as many times a prisoner 
and each time escaped. He tells the truth about 
the depredations of the Northern armies in Vir- 
ginia. He gives the Southern side full credit for 
courage and fortitude, and mentions many indi- 
vidual acts of kindness on the part of our officers 
and men toward his side. His description of the 
battles of which he writes is the most correct, real- 
istic and graphic that I have ever read. His war 



FROM BULL RUN 'JO ArPO\L\TTOX. 249 

experience in Virginia seems to have made him 
familiar with all the towns and fields, hills and 
roadways in the State. As I read his book I cannot 
help saying, "What a valuable scout that boy would 
have been to Gen. Lee or Gen. Stuartl" I am truly 
glad he came out alive. The country needs him 
and his book. It is men like MulhoUand and Smith 
that are cementing the nation together. These two 
brave and magnanimous Grand Army men and the 
books that they have written cannot fail to make a 
deep impression on the nation, although they may 
seem today to be acting an humble part in its af- 
fairs. As a companion piece to what they have 
said of Southern soldiers, I take pleasure in repro- 
ducing a passage from the pen of that gifted South- 
ern writer, Thomas Nelson Page, contained in his 
recent book, "Robert E. Lee, the Southerner:" 

"A study of the war must lead to the conviction that neither courage 
nor fortitude was the monopoly of either side. The men who with- 
stood at Malvern Ilall the fierce charges of the Southern infantry; 
the men who marched down the rolling plain of Second Manassas 
against Stonewall Jackson's lines of flame and dashed like the surging 
sea, wave upon wave, on Lee's iron ranks at Antietam ; the men who 
charged impregnable defences at Marye's Heights; the men who 
climbed the slippery steeps of Chattanooga and swept the crimson 
plain of Franklin; the men who maintained their positions under the 
leaden sleet of the Wilderness and seized the Bloody Angle at 
Spottsylvania ; the men who died at Cold Harbor, rank on rank, need 
to ask no odds for valor of any troops on earth, not even of the men 
who followed Lee." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

"The fierj- courser, when he hears from far 
The sprightly trumpets and th.e shouts of war, 
Pricks up his ears, and, trembHng with delight. 
Shifts place, and paws, and hopes the promised fight." 

Traveller'* and Other Famous Horses of Lee's 
Artny and Their Riders. 

In Greenbrier county, West Virginia, on a blue- 
grass sod, in the year 1859, stood a proud young 
colt, two years old, faultless in form, with shapely 
head, small feet, full mane and tail; his color, gray; 
his name, "Jeff Davis." There were other colts 
that attended the yearly county fairs at Lewisburg, 
some winning honors and some none, but Jeff 
Davis never left the fairground that the honorable 
blue ribbon was not seen fluttering from his bridle. 

Two years later, in the spring of 1861, when the 
curtain was up on the stage of the bloody drama 
and armed battalions were on the boards, judges 
of horses were ransacking the fields and stables of 
Virginia for cavalry horses, draft horses and horses 
for the officers. The army must have the best, and 



*General Lee always spelled "Traveller" with two I's — ^good old 
English style. 



seo 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 25 1 

as these judges rode here and there, inspecting the 
various plantations, the best were presented for in- 
spection. One was taken and another left. It did 
not take these judges long to decide the fitness of 
Jeff Davis for the army, and he was early in the 
Confederate camp. His name was changed to 
"Greenbrier." His owner, Thomas L. Broun, 
major of the Third Virginia Regiment, was elated 
at his purchase. In the fall of that year Gen. Rob- 
ert E. Lee and "Greenbrier" met for the first time. 
On the part of the General it was love at first sight. 
The General and the horse seemed to be the coun- 
terpart of each other. There was a striking resem- 
blance; both were iron gray, both were faultless in 
form, both were kindly and gentle and graceful in 
movement; through the veins of each flowed the 
best blood of his kind. 

Gen. Lee never passed Greenbrier without 
caressing him. He jokingly said to the owner one 
day, "I shall need that horse before the war is 
over." It was not long afterwards when the proud- 
stepping gray was renamed "Traveller," Gen. Lee 
having become his owner by purchase. His former 
owner wanted to present the horse to Gen. Lee as 
a gift, but the latter refused to accept him as such. 



25: FROM BULL RUN TO AFFOMATTOX. 

Ah! Traveller, did you ever think when, an 
unbridled colt, you were roaming over the hills and 
vallevs of old Greenbrier, that you would one day 
be a great warhorse. bearing along the battle front 
the greatest warrior of modern times? Did you 
ever dream that kx^.ocx^ brave soldiers would one 
day doff their caps and make the air ring witli 
shouts of praise as, with proud and stately step, vou 
carried your noble master along the higliways and 
over the fields strewn with the wreckage of battle? 
In your young days did you, as An unsaddled colt, 
ever have visions of Gettysburg, and did the fairies 
ever whisper in your shapely ears that upon that 
bloodv field vour master would win the brightest 
gem in his crown? Did you hear what he said 
when he rode through the remnants of his bleeding 
and shattered battalions as they came streaming 
back from that awful front where the tattered 
standards of the South were shriveled at the can- 
non's mouth? These were his words: 'Tt was all 
my fault/' You heard them, but you did not un- 
derstand their full import. That one short sentence 
did more to make your master illustrious than any 
one of his famous victories. 



FROM liULL KLW 70 APPOMATTOX. 253 

" 'Tis true enough that the laurel crown 

Twines lut for the victor's brow, 
For many a hero has lain him down, 

With naught but a cypress bough. 
There are gallant men in the losing fight. 

And as gallant deeds arc done, 
As ever graced the captured height 

Or the battle grandly won." 

Up to this time wc knew Gen. Lcc only as a con- 
quering hero. Will he stand the test of defeat? 
(Charles Francis Adams of Boston, an officer in the 
Union army at Gettysburg, has this to say of Gen. 
Lee and his army: "Narrowly escaping destruction 
at Gettysburg, my contention is that Lee and the 
army of Northern Virginia never sustained de- 
feat.") Yes, Gettysburg established his right to be 
called great. Had there been no Gettysburg, Gen. 
Lee's diadem would have been incomplete. When 
the army returned to Virginia, Gen. Lee was nearer 
and dearer to his soldiers than ever, and Traveller 
shared the honors. It was "Marse Robert and Old 
Traveller." Just why they called him "old" I can- 
not tell, except that it was a term of endearment. 
Sometimes, after lying idle in camp for days or 
weeks, someone would say, "Look out, boys! there 
go Gen. Lee and Traveller to the front. Soon there 
will be a storm of shot and shell." If the General 



254 TKOM BULL RUN TO APrOMATTOX. 

carried his field glass, it was a sure sign of a coming 
storm, and there would come a change over the face 
of the camp. The men's voices grew lower and 
their countenances became more serious. Many 
seemed to be seized with an impulse to write a let- 
ter home, and pencil and paper were in evidence; 
others got out their Bibles, because Gen. Lee and 
Traveller had gone to the front. 

The Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Yellow Tavern, 
Cold Harbor followed each other in rapid succes- 
sion. Gen. Lee and Traveller were more and more 
conspicuous. Gen. Longstreet was desperately 
wounded at the Wilderness fight and was lost to the 
army for months. Gen. Stuart was killed at Yel- 
low Tavern, and the only two strikingly prominent 
figures remaining in the army of Northern Vir- 
ginia were Gen. Lee and Traveller. The soldiers 
had come to feel towards these two as Rome did 
towards the Colosseum — when the Colosseum falls, 
Rome falls; when Rome, the world — when Travel- 
ler falls, Lee falls; when Lee, the Confederacy. 
Both were guarded by the army with zealous care. 
That is why a soldier stepped forward at Spottsyl- 
vania, and, taking the reins of Traveller in his 
hands, led him and his rider back from where the 




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FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 255 

missiles of death were falling thick and fast. 
Neither could be spared. 

Winter has now come, and the ranks of Lee's 
proud army were torn and decimated; the men 
were suffering with hunger; their faces were fur- 
rowed with care; their clothes tattered; their feet 
bare and bleeding; the army was in the trenches 
stretching from the James river to and around 
Petersburg. Almost daily Gen. Lee and Traveller 
might be seen somewhere along this line. The line 
was 30 miles long, guarded by less than 40,000 men. 
Grant, during the late fall and all through the long 
winter months, had tried in vain to break it. But 
when spring came, knowing that Gen. Lee had in- 
sufficient troops to oppose him. Gen. Grant started 
a movement around the right wing of Lee's army, 
with Sheridan's cavalry in the lead. This, he knew, 
would compel Lee to abandon his trenches. Heavy 
duties now devolved upon Traveller and his 
master. 

One Sunday morning Gen. Lee rode Traveller 
into Richmond and called at the home of President 
Jefferson Davis. As Davis and Lee were standing 
on the front porch discussing the situation a little 
boy from the street camp came up and was listenine 



256 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

to the conversation. Gen. Lee put his hand gently 
on the boy's head and said to him: "Run along, 
little fellow; this is not for you." A very few days 
after this the army was leaving the trenches and 
staggering towards Appomattox. It was April and 
the roads were heavy. The men were nearly fam- 
ished and the whole army rocked and reeled like 
a ship in a storm. It would halt for a rest, and as 
soon as the soldiers touched the ground they were 
asleep, but it was only for a few moments. Sheri- 
dan's cavalry, with Custer in the lead, was pressing 
the retreating army on all sides. The men would 
stagger to their feet and press on a few miles far- 
ther. Everywhere was heard the cry, "Close up, 
close upl" Sometimes they would halt and build 
little fires to cook their scanty rations or parch their 
corn, and before they were half through the orders 
would come, "Move on, move on." Every now and 
then the men were halted and ordered to right 
about to charge the enemy and drive them back. 
This was done over and over, again and again, but 
the relentless foe pressed on. All night long the 
pursuit continued. Move on; close up; bang! 
bang I were the impelling sounds that urged the 
army on. When the tired horses could no longer 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 257 

draw the wagons loaded with ammunition, the lat- 
ter were parked and burned. At night the sky was 
brilliantly lighted with these bonfires, while the 
air was rent with the noise of bursting shells. But 
Gen. Lee, riding Traveller from hill to hill, di- 
rected the movements and baffled his pursuers at 
ever}" point. "I can't be everywhere," said the 
great Napoleon when they told him that his fleet 
had been destroyed on the high seas. But Gen. Lee 
and Traveller seemed to be everywhere. 

Then there came a halt, a real halt. Something 
unusual seemed to be going on. The men were 
resting as they had not done for days. There was 
nothing said, but the soldiers had strong convictions 
as to what it meant. Gen. Lee and Traveller had 
again gone to the front; indeed, they had passed the 
front; they had entered the enemy's lines, and when 
they came back the war was over. Then Gen. Lee 
mounted Traveller and started for Richmond as a 
prisoner of war, but he was not under guard. As 
Gen. Lee and Traveller entered the streets of Rich- 
mond the citizens and Northern soldiers recognized 
them and lifted their hats in silent respect. 

Upon entering his home Gen. Lee dismounted 
and entered the house, where he met his family. 



258 FROM BULL RUN TO APrOMATTOX. 

Then crowds gathered around the gray horse who 
had carried liis master so faithfully. Some put 
their arms around Traveller's neck and sobbed and 
kissed him. Shortly after this Gen. Lee moved to 
Lexington, Traveler was still his friend and com- 
panion, and whenever Gen. Lcc could spare the 
time from his duties he called for Traveller and 
they went olY together, the one for a ride and the 
other for a tramp. lie called on his friends and his 
neighbors, and wherever lie went the General and 
Traveller received a royal welcome. 

One day as Gen. Lee and his daughter were rid- 
ing horseback tlirough a heavy body of woods they 
passed a little cottage on the side of the road. They 
had not gone far beyond the cottage when a thun- 
derstorm suddenly broke over them. Remember- 
ing the shelter that they had just passed, they turned 
and went galloping back. Tlie rain was already 
pouring down upon them, and there were flashes 
of lightning and crashing thunder. His daughter 
Mildred dismounted, and without ceremony 
opened the door of the cottage and walked in. It 
was an humble home, but clean and neat. There 
w^as no one present except the mistress, a woman a 
little beyond the prime of life. ^Liss Lee's riding 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 259 

habit was dripping wet and the water ran down on 
the floor. The hostess was not altogether pleased 
that her nice clean floor should be soiled, and 
showed it by her manner. Soon Gen. Lee came in 
with his high-top, muddy boots, and, not knowing 
who he was, her displeasure was increased. In a 
little while there was a rift in the clouds and the 
sun came out. The guests saw then what they had 
not seen before — the pictures on the wall. There 
were Jefferson Davis, Gen. Beauregard and a num- 
ber of others, among them a picture of Gen. Lee. 
Miss Lee remarked, "Your husband must have been 
in the army." 

"Yes," she said, "he was;" and, pointing to the 
picture of Gen. Lee, said, "That is the one that he 
loves the most. He would die for that one." 

In a little while they were ready to go. As they 
were passing out of the room Miss Lee thanked 
tiicir hostess for giving them the shelter, and then, 
extending her hand towards her father, said to her 
hostess, "This is Gen. Lee himself." 

"Is this Gen. Lee?" replied the astonished 
woman. "What will Henry say when he comes 
home and hears that Gen. Lee has been in our 
house? Gen. Lee I Is it possiblel" 



26o FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

They bade her good-by and resumed their ride, 
the woman standing in the door with her eyes fixed 
on Traveller and his rider until they disappeared 
in the distance. 

One day in June following Gen. Lee's death 
Traveller was browsing about the yard, and, seeing 
someone on the piazza, advanced for the petting 
and the lump of sugar he always expected. It was 
noticed that he was slightly lame. The foot was 
examined, and a small nail was found in it. The 
wound it left was very slight, and nothing more was 
thought of it. In a day or two it was noticed that 
Traveller was not well. A veterinarian was called. 
Traveller had the lockjaw. Two physicians that 
had attended Gen. Lee in his last illness were sum- 
moned to attend the famous warhorse. His suffer- 
ings were great. All that skill and devotion could 
do was done. When he could no longer stand, a 
mattress was brought and laid on the stable floor 
for him. Lexington was deeply grieved. Not only 
the town people, but the neighbors far and wide 
came to offer suggestions and condolences, but he 
was beyond human aid. The good warhorse died 
shortly afterwards, beloved and mourned by the 
whole South. He was buried, and later his bones 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 26 1 

were mounted, and the skeleton stands today in the 
museum of the Washington and Lee University at 
Lexington, Va. The following is a description of 
this famous horse by Gen. Lee himself. It was dic- 
tated to his daughter Agnes at Lexington, Va., after 
the war, in response to an artist who had asked for 
a description, and was corrected in his own hand- 
writing: 

"If I were an artist like you I would draw a true picture of Trav- 
eller, representing his fine proportions, muscular figure, deep chest 
and short back, strong haunches, flat legs, small head, broad fore- 
head, delicate ears, quick eye, small feet and black mane and tail. 
Such a picture would inspire a poet, whose genius could then depict 
his worth and describe his endurance of toil, hunger, thirst, heat, 
cold, and the dangers and sufferings through which he passed. He 
could dilate upon his sagacity and affection and his invariable response 
to every wish of his rider, lie might even imagine his thoughts dur- 
ing the long night marches and days of battle through which he had 
passed. But I am no artist; I can only say he is a Confederate Gray. 
I purchased him in the mountains of Virginia in the autumn of 1861, 
and he has been my patient follower ever since — to Georgia, the 
Carolinas and back to Virginia. He carried me through the Seven 
Days' battle around Richmond, the second Alanassas, at Sharpsburg, 
Fredericksburg, the last day at Chancellorsville, to Pennsylvania, at 
Gettysburg, and back to the Rappahannock. From the commencement 
of the campaign in 1864 at Orange, till its close around Petersburg, 
the saddle was scarcely off his back. lie passed through the fire of 
the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and across the James 
River. He was almost in daily requisition in the winter of i864-'65 
on the long line of defense from Chickahominy, north of Richmond, to 
Hatcher's Run, south of the Appomattox. In the campaign of 1865 
he bore me from Petersburg to the final days at Appomattox Court 
House. You must know the comfort he is to me in my present re- 
tirement. He is well supplied with equipments. Two sets have been sent 
to him from England, one from the ladies of Baltimore and one was 



262 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

made for him in Richmond, but I think his favorite is the American 
saddle from St. Louis. Of all his companions in toil, 'Richmond,' 
'Brown Roan,' 'Ajax' and quiet 'Lucy Long,' he is tlie only one that 
retained his vigor. The first two expired under their onerous bur- 
den, and the last two failed. You can, I am sure, from what I have 

said, paint his portrait. 

"R. E. Lee." 

I insert the following letter, written by Gen. Lee 
to his daughter Agnes in the winter of 1862-63 
(while his army confronted Hooker's at Fred- 
ericksburg), because it reveals the simplicity of 
Lee's character and his concern for his horses and 
mules: 

Camp Fredericksburg, February 6, 1863. 
" * * * I read yesterday, my precious daughter, your letter, and 
grieved very much when last in Richmond at not seeing you. ]My 
movements are so uncertain that I cannot be relied on for anything. 
The only place I am to be found is in camp, and I am so cross now 
that I am not worth seeing anywhere. Here you will have to take 
me with the three stools, the snow, the rain and the mud. The storm 
of the last twenty-four hours has added to our stock of all, and we 
are now in a floating condition. But the sun and the wind will carry 
all off in time, and then we shall appreciate our relief. Our horses 
and mules suffer the most. They have to bear the cold and rain, tug 
through the mud and suffer all the time with hunger. The roads 
are wretched, almost impassable. One of our scouts brought me a 
card of Margaret Stuart's with a pair of gauntlets directed to 'Cousin 
Robert.' * * * I have no news. General Hooker is obliged to do 
something. I do not know what it will be. He is playing the Chinese 
game — trying what frightening will do. He runs out his guns, starts 
his wagons and troops up and down the river, and creates an excite- 
ment generally. Our men look on in wonder, give a cheer, and all 
again subsides in statu quo ante bcllum. I wish you were here with 
me today. You would have to sit by this little stove, look out at the 
rain and keep yourself dry. But here comes, in all the wet, the adju- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 263 

tant-general, with his papers. I must stop and go to work. See how 
kind God is? We have plenty to do in good weather and bad. * * * 

"Your devoted father, 

"R. E. Lee." 

The following letter, written two weeks after- 
wards to Mrs. Lee, again reveals the care that he 
had for his horses and men in the trying conditions 
that surrounded his camp February 23, 1863 : 

Camp Near Fredericksburg. 
"The weather is very hard on our poor men. This morning the 
whole country was covered with a mantle of snow nearly a foot 
deep. It was nearly up to my knees when I stepped out this morning, 
and our poor horses were enveloped. We have dug them out and 
opened up our avenues a little, but it will be terrible and the roads 
impassable. No cars from Richmond yesterday. I fear our rations 
for men and horses will have to be curtailed." 

In April, 1864, with Grant in command of the 
Union army, and just before the opening of the 
campaign that was to usher in the Wilderness and 
Spottsylvania, Gen. Lee was seriously contemplat- 
ing abandoning Virginia and moving his army to 
North Carolina on account of his inability to pro- 
vide food for his horses and men. On April 12 he 
wrote to President Davis at Richmond as follows: 

"My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great 
that I cannot refrain from expressing it to Your Excellency. I can- 
not see how we can operate with our present supplies. 

"R. E. Lee, General. 

Yet the horses and men struggled on a year 



264 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

longer, with the food problem growing more seri- 
ous every day. Perhaps Charles Francis Adams 
was right when he said: "Lee and the army of 
Northern Virginia never suffered defeat, but suc- 
cumbed to exhaustion. To the end they were not 
overthrown in fight." The soldiers got some satis- 
faction from being able to tell of their hunger and 
suffering, but the horses were fated to suffer in 
silence. 

The next most renowned horse in the Confed- 
erate army was "Stonewall" Jackson's "Little Sor- 
rel." No one knows just where this famous horse 
came from, except that, with a number of other 
horses, he was captured in the springtof 1861 some- 
where between Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg. 
Gen. Jackson's keen eye recognized in the horse 
those qualities necessary for efficient army service, 
and, being chosen by the General as his riding 
horse, he served his master faithfully to the end. 
I believe it was Jackson's soldiers who dubbed him 
"Little Sorrel." He was not a remarkably fine- 
looking horse, and his rider usually presented a 
rather awkward appearance when on his back. The 
General would ride along the road with his stir- 
rup straps too short, and his head bent down as if 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 265 

in deep meditation, so that no one who did not 
know him would have selected him for the in- 
vincible Jackson. It was only when in action that 
the General and his Little Sorrel showed to ad- 
vantage. 

In the midst of battle Jackson's whole frame was 
wrought up, his eyes flashed fire, and his commands 
were uttered in a quick, ringing voice. Little Sor- 
rel's head was erect, the horse seeming to take on 
the enthusiasm of his master, and the two made a 
striking figure. No one would have suspected that 
this horse and rider were the same that had passed 
along the dusty road a few hours before when the 
enemy was several miles away. This was the horse 
that Gen. Jackson rode in all his engagements. It 
was Little Sorrel that carried him to the woods near 
Chancellorsville to meet Gen. Lee, where they both 
dismounted, and, sitting upon two cracker boxes, 
planned the movement that resulted in the defeat 
of Hooker's army. Jackson, when he left Lee, was 
riding his Little Sorrel. His corps of 25,000 sol- 
diers was marching rapidly through the woods and 
undergrowth towards the rear of Hooker's great 
army. The march was a long and weary one. Gen. 
Fitzhugh Lee, who had gone ahead, suddenly 



266 FROM BULL Rl'X TO APPa\L\TTOX. 

reached a point where from an eminence he could 
see the whole of Howard's corps of Hooker's army 
quietly preparing their supper, all unconscious of 
the approach of Jackson's army. Gen. Fitz Lee 
hurried back to meet Jackson and inform him of 
what he had seen. Jackson, putting spurs to Little 
Sorrel, shortly reached the spot designated by Gen. 
Fitz Lee, and there, before his astonished vision, 
lay the object of his search. He was quiet for a 
moment; then he grew greatly excited and ner\-ous. 
The time for action had come and now was the hour 
to strike. He turned his horse away and lifted his 
arm, as he had often done when engaged in silent 
prayer. Gen. Fitz Lee, observing his chief in the 
attitude of prayer, said to himself, ''Beware, Gen. 
Hooker; beware! 'Stonewall' Jackson is in full 
view of your exposed and defenseless right wing, 
praying to his God." Jackson, again touching the 
flank of his horse with the spur, rode rapidly back 
to bring up his army. This was just before sun- 
down. The stor\' of the battle that followed has 
been too often told to be repeated here. At 9 o'clock 
Jackson was still riding Little Sorrel. A few mo- 
ments later the great soldier received his death 
wound, and then horse and rider parted company 



FROM BULL RL'X TO APPOMATTOX. 267 

torever. Little Sorrel, though severely wounded, 
recovered and lived to a great age for horses. At 
his death he was at least 37 years old and perhaps 
older, or nearly 39 years of age, the age of his mas- 
ter when he received his death wound. Little Sor- 
rel paid a visit to Baltimore when he was about 
30 years of age, and attracted a great deal of atten- 
tion. After his death he went into the hands of the 
taxidermist, and he stands today on a pedestal in 
the Confederate Soldiers' Home at Richmond, 
looking almost as lifelike as v/hen he carried his 
master through the smoke and dust of battle. 

President Jefferson Davis, who, by virtue of his 
office, was commander-in-chief of all the Confed- 
erate armies, was one of the most graceful of riders. 
I saw him on horseback only once. That was at 
Manassas Station July 21, 1861, when he mounted 
a handsome iron gray and galloped ofif towards the 
battlefield just at the moment when the tide was 
turning against Beauregard and Johnston. He 
looked the very picture of a soldier, and sat his 
horse with a grace seldom witnessed. Of him, who, 
by virtue of his office, was commander-in-chief of 
all the armies of the Union — Abraham Lincoln — 
I have somewhere seen a picture and description as 



268 FROM BULL RUN TO APPO^LATTOX. 

he appeared one day on horseback in the army of 
the Potomac. I think it was when McClellan was 
in command. That tall, stovepipe hat, long frame, 
long arms and legs and short stirrup straps must 
have made the spectator smile ; but it did not take 
grace and ease in the saddle to win favor and re- 
nown. Lincoln could afford to be awkward; in- 
deed, his homely exterior seemed to add luster to 
his charming personality and brilliant mental pow- 
ers, and I am quite sure I am correct when I say 
that of all the men of the North arrayed against the 
South Abraham Lincoln was the most respected. 

Perhaps the best and most graceful rider in all 
the armies, North or South, was that gay, chival- 
rous chevalier. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart. His first horse 
was "Skylark." This horse was used in the lower 
Virginia Valley and at the first battle of Manassas, 
and was lost in Maryland upon return from the 
Chambersburg expedition. Another favorite horse 
lost at the same time was "Lady Neargrav^." "Star 
of the East" was another favorite. This latter horse 
was a large sorrel, with a star on his forehead. He 
was killed in battle or died from wounds received 
in battle. Another horse, named "Lilly," was a 
beautiful dark dapple brown, and was Mrs, Stu- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 269 

art's riding horse when she occasionally visited near 
the General's headquarters. Mrs. Stuart rode Lilly 
for years after the war, but an injury to the mare's 
foot finally caused such suffering that she had to be 
shot. Still another horse, "General," a large gray, 
was the horse Gen. Stuart rode in his last charge. 
This horse was given to Major Andrew Venable, 
who is now living at Farmville, Va. 

Gen. Stuart was always well mounted, and, like 
"Harry of Navarre," everywhere he was in front, 
and the men followed the feather (a long black 
plume). When he was a cadet at West Point he 
was known as "Beauty" Stuart. He was, perhaps, 
the handsomest soldier in the Confederate army. 
His last official dispatch, dated 6 A. M. May 11, 
1864, contains these words: "My men and horses 
are tired, hungry and jaded, but all right." This 
was at Yellow Tavern, six miles from Richmond. 
A few moments later he received his death wound, 
and died the next day, aged 31 years. 

I have already spoken of "Long Tom," a horse 
owned and ridden by Capt. Bowles E. Armistead 
of Company A, Sixth Virginia Cavalry. I shall 
never forget Long Tom. I think he and his gallant 
rider were instrumental in saving my life; at least 



270 FROM BULL RUN TO APPO^L\TTOX. 

I was in great jeopardy until they came up. (Sec 
pages 120 and 121.) They called him "Tom" for 
short and "Long" because he was long. Having a 
long head and neck, a long body, a long tail, long 
legs and a long stride, he was very appropriately 
named. He was a picturesque warhorse, and when 
under fire presented a magnificent picture. His 
owner, Capt. Armistead, now 70 years old, is living 
in the town of Upperville, Fauquier county, Vir- 
ginia. It fell to Capt. Armistead's lot in the fall of 
1864 to lead a squadron of his regiment against a 
strong line of the enemy. While going at full speed 
Long Tom was shot dead. The Captain's men 
passed over him, and while under fire the Captain 
cut a lock from the mane of Long Tom and pre- 
served it for years. 

Capt. Armistead was a gallant officer. He had 
two horses killed under him and was himself 
wounded three times. He is a brother of Gen. 
Armistead, one of the bravest of the brave, who fell 
in the very forefront of the line of Pickett's charge 
at Gettysburg, and died the next day in the hands 
of the enemy. Gen. Hancock, the famous Union 
general, who knew Gen. Armistead well, dis- 
mounted, and, grasping the General's hand, told 




OIOMCUAI. l.oriS ADDISON Alf.M IS'I'IOAD. 
I'"al!ill,v WDiiiKlcd ill (Jet l.vsliiii';;. 

Clencral Afiiiislcad fell at. the fool of the cliiinp of trocs which markf 
the cxti-i'iiu |)oiiit rcaclK'd hy the Confederates in this their supreme effort. 
'I'lie Confederate cause is liuiMed tin re tliei-o the tide of invasion stopped. 
(See i)aKes 271 and 212. ) 

(ienerai Arinistead, after receiving; his mortal wound at Gettysburg, said : 

"lijiy me down alongside of Cenerai Hancock; we are old friends." 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 27 1 

him, with a soldier's sympathy, how sorry he was to 
see him wounded, promised to send messages to his 
loved ones in Virginia, and tried to cheer him with 
hope that his wounds would not be mortal. This is 
the kind of men the Armisteads were, and Long 
Tom was just the kind of horse the Armisteads 
would want to own.* 

Long Tom had some cute tricks. For instance, 
he did not like to be at the end of any man's halter. 
It was all right when his master held the strap, but 
when he was not there Tom usually slipped the 
halter and went roaming around the camp looking 
for something nice to eat. He was very fond of 
"hardtack." Sometimes he would get loose at night 
and go on a foraging expedition among the sleeping 
soldiers. One night Capt. Armistead said that he 



*Gcnerar Lewis Addison Armistead was the nephew of Colonel 
George Armistead, the defender of Fort McMenry when Francis 
Scott Key wrote our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." 
He crossed the plain from California in 1861 to join the Confederacy 
with General Albert Sidney Johnson, who was also making his way 
to join his fortunes with the Confederacy. General Armistead's 
friends could probably rightfully claim for him the title of the real 
hero of Gettysburg. In Pickett's charge he reached the farthest 
point attained by any Confederate, and was riddled with Ixillets as he 
placed his hand on a gun of the Union batteries. 

This was the afternoon of July 3. He lingered through the 
fourth, and died on the morning of tlie fifth. His remains were 
brought to Pjaltimore by his cousin, Colonel Hughes Armistead, and 
interred in the family vault in old St. Paul's burying ground, Lom- 
bard street, this city, by the side of his relative, Colonel George 
Armistead, the defender of Fort McHenry. 



272 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

heard one of the men yell out that some horse had 
pulled his haversack from under his head and had 
taken most of his hair with it. Capt. Armistead 
said: "I knew at once it was Tom." He would fol- 
low his master around the camp like a pet dog or 
like Mary's little lamb, and would lay his head lov- 
ingly on his shoulder. 

For grace, for strength and intelligence, for 
quickness of action, the three stallions owned and 
ridden by the two Ashbys in the Virginia Valley 
during the first year of the war had probably no 
equal — one a coal black, one as white as snow, the 
third a handsome chestnut sorrel. They were as 
swift as the eagle, as agile as the cat, and could clear 
any fence. Colonel (afterwards General) Turner 
Ashby and Capt. Richard Ashby were brothers. 
They were the idols of all Virginia up to the time 
of their tragic deaths, and Virginia today mourns, 
and will never cease to mourn, their untimely tak- 
ing of¥. Had they lived their names and fame 
would perhaps have been known around the world. 
There were no riders superior to the Ashbys, and 
there were no horses like those which the Ashbys 
rode. 

Late in June, 1861, Capt. Richard Ashby, leav- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 273 

ing his handsome black horse in camp, took another 
less famous animal and went out with a few men 
on a scouting expedition. He suddenly came upon 
a detachment of Pennsylvania infantry near Rom- 
ney, W. Va., and charged them. In order to get 
at them he attempted to leap a cattle stop on the 
railroad track. His horse, however, was not equal 
to it, and both went down. In this helpless condi- 
tion Ashby received 1 1 bayonet wounds, resulting 
in his death a few days afterwards. His brother 
fell heir to his black stallion. This brother. Gen. 
Turner Ashby, met a more tragic death the follow- 
ing June, 1862, his horse sharing his fate, as de- 
scribed later. A few days before this latter lament- 
able event his superb white steed received his death 
wound. Gen. Ashby, at the crossing of the Shenan- 
doah near Strasburg, was disputing the passage of 
the river by the Union army. As the noble animal 
was led back from the front he presented a pathetic 
and inspiring picture. It is said of him that he 
trod the earth with the grandeur of a wounded lion. 
As he passed a regiment of infantry looked on in 
solemn silence, and saw, with every pant, the blood 
gushing from his pierced side and flowing down 
over a snowy surface to the ground. His quick eye 



274 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

seemed to resent the cruel wrong that was robbing 
him of his warm life blood. What became of the 
black horse I do not know, but the little poem on 
the two hundred and twenty-third page of this 
book so well describes the horse that Ashby left 
behind, we might appropriately ask the question, 
Was this the hero's horse ? 

It would take several volumes to tell of all the 
famous horses of Lee's army and of their heroic 
deeds. They suffered greatly in battle. Bullets 
that passed between men were often caught by the 
bulkier bodies of the horses in the ranks back of the 
front. Capt. Grimsley of my regiment, Sixth Vir- 
ginia, had six horses killed under him, yet during 
the entire four years of service he was not himself 
struck. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
Waterloo and Appomattox. 

"On the wall, above my mantle, 

There's an ancient weapon hung — 
Tarnished, dusty, old and rusty, 
Springfield pattern, sixty-one." 

In that matchless mixture of fact and fiction 
which the author calls "Les Miserables," Victor 
Hugo paints a picture of Waterloo: *'It is night; 
the battle is over; the rout is on; the multitude fills 
roads, paths, bridges, plains, hills, valleys, woods, 
all choked up by this flight of 40,000 men, horses, 
wagons, artillery; they crush and they crowd, they 
tramp upon the living and the dead. Blucher 
gave orders to kill all. This ferocity filled the dis- 
aster to the brim. In the deepening gloom on a 
field near Genappe two soldiers seized by the flap 
of his coat and stopped a haggard, thoughtful, 
gloomy man, who, dragged thus far by the current 
of the rout, had dismounted, passed the bridle of 
his horse under his arm, and, with bewildered eye, 
was returning alone towards Waterloo. It was Na- 
poleon endeavoring to advance again — mighty 
somnambulist of a vanished dream." 

After Appomattox the remnants of Lee's dis- 

87S 



276 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

armed veterans scattered, radiating toward every 
point of the compass, without money, without trans- 
portation, footsore and ragged, without orders, 
marching across fields, through woods, along roads, 
over bridges, over hills, wading streams, eating 
anything they could find, sleeping anywhere with- 
out guard or sentinel, halting at every pool to bathe 
their blistered feet, trudging on by day and by 
night, no rattling armor, no drill, no bugle blast, 
no rollcall, no sound of battle, no clash of steel — ■ 
on they went, with the instinct of the homing 
pigeon. The circle widens at every step, and every 
hour the number lessens. The Virginians are the 
first to begin the disintegration, and, one by one, 
drop like weary wanderers into their homes. North 
Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky follow in rapid 
succession; then South Carolina , Georgia, Ala- 
bama and Florida receive their returning veterans. 
The prodigals from Mississippi and Louisiana are 
nearing home with visions of the fatted calf that is 
not there. Marylanders are swimming the Poto- 
mac and are entering a land of plenty, and far-ofif 
Texas, like Egypt when Joseph ruled, has some 
corn left, and her ragged sons can depend upon a 
plentiful supply of ash cake. 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 277 

At the beginning of this motley disintegration 
immediately after Appomattox, in the midst of the 
gloom-clouds hanging like dismal funeral trap- 
pings over the land, a little band of horsemen halted 
deep in a Georgia forest. In the darkness of the 
early morning two soldiers seized by the flap of his 
coat and stopped a haggard, thoughtful, gloomy 
man, who, dragged thus far by the current of rap- 
idly shifting events, had dismounted and, with be- 
wildered eye, was scanning an army map. It was 
Jefferson Davis, planning to go back and beat 
Grant. 

Napoleon had hopes after Waterloo; Jefferson 
Davis had hopes after Appomattox. Both were 
doomed to disappointment. But France still lives 
and rightfully claims the grave of the world's great- 
est military hero. What did the South get, or, 
rather, what did she lose by the war? Her slaves? 
A kind Providence has paid her back for these a 
hundred-fold. Her homes, barns, mills, bridges? 
All these have been restored. Her wealth? No 
other country in the world is multiplying riches 
so rapidly. Ah I but what of her graves ? Who can 
give back her dead? Gen. Lee's statue in the Hall 
of Fame at Washington is the answer. He was 



278 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

commander-in-chief of all the armies of the South; 
his soldiers won for him that place in the nation's 
Valhalla, and he is there to represent them. But 
what of the widows and orphans? They have the 
memories of their heroic dead. But they called us 
rebels and traitors. What power divine will ever 
wash from our bloody hands the crime of treason? 
Here is the answer: When Theodore Roosevelt 
was yet President of the United States he directed 
that the name of Jefferson Davis be restored upon 
Cabin John Bridge. His successor, President Wil- 
liam H. Taft, in a recent speech, called Mr. Davis 
a hero. The silver serv'ice on one of our great bat- 
tleships bears his image. If these honors bestowed 
upon the name of Jefferson Davis mean anything, 
they mean that the people of the North want to be 
magnanimous, and the people of the South are, 
with becoming modesty, accepting their proffered 
generosity. They mean, also, that there is a grow- 
ing feeling in the North that, after all, Jefferson 
Davis and his followers were not rebels and traitors. 
Again, all around us evidence multiplies that the 
North and South are uniting to make our great war 
a blessing, and not a curse, and, with God's help, 
they will do it. Let us, then, build monuments and 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 279 

park our battlefields, and tell the war story over and 
over, again and again. It will do our children no 
harm to enter a cyclorama and look out upon Phil- 
lipoteau's great picture, stretching from horizon to 
horizon, showing the battle of Gettysburg. God 
has ever wanted men who are willing to die. Every 
nation and every cause needs them. Let us, then, 
proudly show the battlefields of our gigantic Civil 
War that coming generations may see for them- 
selves how men and boys of the past died for what 
they conceived to be right. And, pray, which was 
right? Has that question ever been settled? I may 
be a little ahead of time, but it seems to me that the 
Civil War, or what the South calls the War Be- 
tween the States, is the nation's heritage. The he- 
roes of that struggle belong to the nation; the dead 
are the nation's dead. There is already a strange, 
mysterious influence spreading all over the North 
compelling her to honor the South for the brave 
stand she took for what she conceived to be her con- 
stitutional rights. There is, too, a feeling spread- 
ing all over the South compelling her to honor the 
North for the brave fight she made for the preser- 
vation of the Union. Here is the truth in a nut- 
shell: the North fought not for the abolition of 



28o FROM BULL RUN TO APPO^L\TTOX. 

Slavery, but to prevent the destruction of the Union ; 
the South fought not for the perpetuity of slavery, 
but for her constitutional rights. If anyone doubts 
this statement, let him consult the soldiers who did 
the fighting. In the struggle slavery was crushed 
to death, and we have this strange result: both sides 
won. The South has her constitutional rights; the 
Union is restored. Let us, then, join hands to pre- 
serve all that is worth preserving of those four 
years of tragic story that ended so auspiciously for 
both sides. The next quarter turn of the century 
wheel will, perhaps, carry from the stage the last 
of the old soldiers and eye-witnesses of the events 
of that period ; hence those who have anything to 
tell must tell it now. In this simple story I be- 
lieve I have told about all that I can recall that 
is worthy of preser\'ation, yet I see a vast field that 
has not been entered by any writer except in a 
superficial manner. Every surviving old soldier 
who went through the Civil War has in his, posses- 
sion mental pictures of events which, if he could 
reproduce them, would make the old masters pale 
with envy, and memories of scenes of action which, 
if he could describe them, would make this the 
golden age of literature. What are we to do with 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 28 1 

these treasures? As the Rockefellers and Carne- 
gies are greatly puzzled to know what to do with 
their wealth, so we poor ex-soldiers have our trou- 
bles, too; we don't know how to dispose of our 
Civil War pictures, because we have no language 
or skill with which to develop them. But I am 
tempted to try in the closing pages of this personal 
narrative to leave some material or suggestion that 
would aid an artist to reproduce, by pen or brush, 
a picture of Jackson's valley campaign in the 
spring of 1862 — a panorama of that three-months' 
war game, which has for its stage the territory lying 
between the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny moun- 
tains and stretching from Staunton to Harper's 
Ferry. I would also like to put on record material 
that may help some master pen or brush to pro- 
duce, for the benefit and entertainment of future 
generations, the physical counterpart of a men- 
tal picture which I have of Lee's and Hooker's 
armies playing for positions as they march toward 
Gettysburg. You may be quite sure that no such 
awe-inspiring procession will ever again cross any 
portion of our land. Comets periodically come and 
go, but our war-loving boys of today must be con- 
tent to feast their martial spirits on scenes that have 



282 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

forever passed into history; so let us give them the 
best we have. There is another undeveloped pic- 
ture which needs a master hand to touch it into 
life; it is that of these two great armies asleep 
along the Rappahannock. I have a mental image 
of Lee's army in this position, but I would have to 
possess Victor Hugo's pen or Michel Angelo's 
brush to do it justice. The artist that is to develop 
this and kindred pictures has not yet arrived. He 
may be asleep tonight in his cradle, but when he 
comes to himself, where will he get material for his 
work if those who have it fail to put it on record? 

"stonewall'' JACKSON'S VALLEY CAMPAIGN. 
(A Pen Picture.) 

If you have never visited that part of the Vir- 
ginia Valley stretching (122 miles) from Staunton 
to Harper's Ferry on the Potomac and (40 miles) 
from the Blue Ridge to the Alleghenies on the west, 
5^ou must, in order to understand me, have a map 
before you. Notice carefully the position of the 
Massanutton mountain, which begins in a bold 
peak at Strasburg and runs south 50 miles parallel 
with the Blue Ridge, dividing the narrow Page 
Valley from the main valley and ending as 
abruptly 10 miles east of Harrisonburg. This 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 283 

mountain is called the glory of the valley, and is 
so rough and precipitous that a rabbit would have 
difficulty in getting over it, except at one point, 
near New Market, where a good winding road has 
been built across it. This mountain, cut by this one 
passageway, was of great strategical importance to 
the Confederacy. It was Jackson's ally, and right 
well it served him. It also divided the Shenandoah 
river, the south branch following the east side, 
while the north branch follows the west side, the 
two branches meeting near Strasburg and thence 
moving on to the Potomac at Harper's Ferry. The 
foregoing, in brief, is the stage where "Stonewall" 
Jackson played one of the most unique war games 
known to history. The historian has well told how 
the battles were fought, the disposition of the forces, 
the divisions and subdivisions of the armies and 
their commanders, the positions of the batteries and 
who commanded the guns ; but only those who were 
eye-witnesses have any adequate conception of the 
beauty, the grandeur and the magnitude of that 
performance which began at dawn March i, 1862, 
and continued night and day without interruption 
until June 10. 

March i, 1862, Jackson is at Winchester, with a 



284 FROM BULL RUN TO APPO^L•\TTOX. 

little army of 4600 soldiers and 27 cannon. He is 
there to threaten V^ashington and to prevent, as far 
as possible, the sending of reinforcements to 
McClellan, who, with a large army, is marching 
on Richmond. Banks, commanding a Federal 
army of 38,000 men and 80 cannon, has just crossed 
the Potomac at Harper's Ferry and is marching 
towards Winchester. Jackson at once abandons his 
camp at Winchester and marches down the valley 
to meet him. After skirmishing with his huge an- 
tagonist, Jackson retreats to Winchester, followed 
cautiously by Banks. March 12, Jackson retires to 
Edenburg, beyond Strasburg. Learning that a 
large portion of Banks' forces are leaving the val- 
ley, Jackson takes 2700 men, retraces his steps, and 
falls like a thunderbolt upon a part of Banks' army 
at Kernstown, near Winchester, but is repulsed. 
His object, however, is attained. This move is de- 
signed to prevent any portion of Banks' army from 
leaving the valley. Refer now to your map and 
trace Jackson's march from Kernstown to Stras- 
burg, to Harrisonbug, to Swift Run Gap, across the 
Blue Ridge, southward along the foot of the moun- 
tain to Rock Fish Gap, back across the mountain to 
Staunton, on to McDowell — where he defeats a 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 285 

Federal army under Milroy — then back across the 
valley to the only gap in the Massanutton mountain, 
near New Market. He crosses this mountain and 
meets Gen. Ewell, who has crossed the Blue Ridge 
with 9000 reinforcements. Jackson is now the 
proud commander of an army of 15,000 veterans 
and is within a few miles of Strasburg, where a por- 
tion of Banks' army is sleeping in unconscious se- 
curity. "On this night, May 22, President Lin- 
coln and his people were without fear of what the 
morrow might bring forth. The end of the 'rebel- 
lion' seemed near at hand. Washington was full of 
the anticipated triumph. The crowds passed to 
and fro in the broad avenues, exchanging congratu- 
lations on the success of the Northern arms and the 
approaching downfall of the slaveholders. The 
theaters were filled with delighted audiences, who 
hailed every scoffing allusion to the 'Southern chiv- 
alry' with enthusiasm, and gaiety and confidence 
reigned supreme. Little dreamed the light-hearted 
multitude that in the silent woods of the Luray Val- 
ley a Confederate army lay asleep beneath the stars. 
Little dreamed Lincoln or Banks or Stanton (Lin- 
coln's War Secretary) that not more than 70 miles 
from Washington the most daring of their enemies, 



286 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

waiting for the dawn to rise above the mountains, 
was pouring out his soul in prayer. The next 
morning, May 23, there was no token of the ap- 
proaching storm. The day was hot and the blue 
masses of the mountains shimmered in the summer 
haze. There is no sign of life save the buzzards 
sailing lazily above the slumberous woods. Sud- 
denly, and without the least warning, a long line of 
skirmishers broke from the forest. The clear notes 
of the Confederate bugles, succeeded by the crash 
of musketry, awoke the echoes of the Blue Ridge, 
and the Federal pickets were driven in confusion 
to the village. The long roll of drums beat the 
startled camp of the Federals to arms."* The scene 
that shortly followed is indescribable. 

banks' FAMOUS RETREAT. 

All is noise and confusion ; everywhere is smoke 
mingled with impenetrable dust. With roads, 
paths, valleys and woods filled up with fleeing mul- 
titudes of men, horses, wagons and artillery, the 
scene is almost as dreadful as Napoleon's flight 
from Waterloo. On they rush through Winchester 
and beyond, with Jackson's men and horses close 

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Upon their heels. As the Confederates pass through 
Winchester the populace, frantic with triumph 
after two months of captivity, from every doorway 
rush out and mingle with the troops, horses and 
artillery, and, amid weeping and laughter, Jack- 
son's soldiers are, with the blessings of the women 
and the fierce shouts of the men, urged forward in 
hot pursuit. When five miles beyond the city the 
tired horses can no longer pull Jackson's cannon; 
the exhausted men can no longer carry their guns 
and ammunition. The horses are unhitched, the 
men are mounted and the pursuit continues. Jack- 
son, rising in his stirrups and taking off his hat, 
shouts to his soldiers, "On to the Potomac! On to 
the Potomac!" Banks has parted with everything 
that will impede his flight. All the army stores at 
Strasburg, Front Royal and Winchester, together 
with many prisoners, arc in the hands of the Con- 
federates. Banks reaches the Potomac with the 
greater part of his army, and crosses to the Mary- 
land side for safety. Jackson confronts him on the 
Virginia side and remains long enough for his scat- 
tered soldiers to assemble and rest. While waiting 
here, Jackson rides to an eminence, dismounts, and, 
putting his field glasses to his eyes, gazes away off in 



288 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

the smoky distance, and sees, in imagination, the 
glistening dome of the capitol at Washington. He 
looks long and earnestly, drops his glass and bows 
his head as if in prayer; then, suddenly aroused, 
mounts and sadly rides away, muttering, it is said, 
these words: "/ can take Washington, but God 
wont let me." Turning his back upon Banks and 
the Potomac, he faces a long stretch of valley as far 
back as Staunton, 120 miles away. Then in the dis- 
tance he sees a gathering storm. 

The news of Banks' overthrow has reached 
Washington, has reached McClellan before Rich- 
mond, has reached McDowell, whose army of 
40,000 soldiers lies idle near Fredericksburg; has 
reached Fremont, who is hurrying across the moun- 
tains from the west with an army of 17,000 men. 
Jackson is encumbered with 2000 prisoners and 
seven miles of captured stores. Strasburg is 50 
miles away. Two armies, each greater than his 
own, are marching from opposite directions toward 
this point to cut Jackson off. If these two Federal 
armies can here form a junction before Jackson ar- 
rives, the latter is in a trap ; but there is no wireless 
telegraphy, so they approach cautiously. Jackson 
is hurrying, and arrive? first, The gateway is nar- 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 289 

row. The vanguards, however, of these opposing 
armies of the enemy have arrived. But some un- 
seen hand seems to be holding open the gates to let 
the conqueror through. As Jackson passes through, 
his soldiers are reminded of a game they played in 
their childhood: 

"Hold the gates as high as the sky, 
And let King George's troops go by." 

The whole army passes through in safety. Not a 
soldier, not a prisoner, not even a wagon wheel, is 
lost. Jackson has again saved his army and is mov- 
ing on toward Harrisonburg. 

Fremont takes command of the Federal armies 
and presses hard upon Jackson's tracks. It was 
here at the crossing of the river that Ashby lost his 
famous white charger mentioned in Chapter XIII. 
Fremont divided his army, sending Shields up the 
Page Valley, while with his main army he takes 
the west side. Shield's object is to seize and hold 
the bridges on the river so as to keep in touch with 
the main army, and also to seize the gaps in the 
Blue Ridge mountains for the purpose of keeping 
Jackson in the valley and bringing him to bay at 
some point beyond Harrisonburg. Jackson, how- 
ever, is quick enough to seize and destroy the 



290 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

bridges before the arrival of Shields. Ashby is 
covering Jackson's retreat, and is hotly contesting 
every foot of ground. From Harrisonburg Jack- 
son moves rapidly to Port Republic, where the 
Shenandoah river again branches. Standing on the 
abrupt ending of the Massanutton mountain, one 
has a panoramic view of the whole field. (You are 
about to witness the battles of Cross Keys, Port Re- 
public and Harrisonburg, following each other in 
rapid succession and graphically told by the his- 
torian.) Jackson at Port Republic has now turned 
and faces his foes, and is ready for action. He can 
be distinctly seen riding along the battle front 
placing his battalions to receive Fremont's adi 
vancing lines. His batteries of artillery are placed 
and the guns are loaded. Skirmishers of both ar- 
mies are already engaged in front. The cavalry 
on the flanks is ready to play its part. Back of all, 
but as close as they dare approach, can be seen the 
white tops of the ambulances. The doctors and 
their attendants spread their canvas and await re- 
sults. Then puf^s of white smoke from the woods 
and the fields and the hills back of the gray lines, 
puffs of white smoke from the woods and the fields 
and the hills beyond the blue lines, can be seen in 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 29 1 

the picture. This is the beginning of the battle. 
The picture is nearly half a century old. The men 
now living who were engaged^in this conflict are 
for the most part old and bent and gray, but in the 
picture they are nearly all boys and have eternal 
youth. So real is the picture that you can hear the 
sound of the guns. You can see the rising smoke 
and dust as they mingle and thicken and almost ob- 
scure the field. Peeping above these clouds, like 
little islands in the sea, are the hilltops. Every now 
and then there is a rift in the clouds, giving the 
observer a glimpse of the battle. Suddenly there is 
a great commotion on Jackson's left. Amid clouds 
of dust are bright flashes of what seems to be 
lightning. A little later figures of men and horses 
are dimly seen. A little later the lightning has 
changed to glittering steel-saber flashes. Still later 
men are dropping from their horses like ripe fruit 
from the trees of a storm-swept orchard ; horses, too, 
are dropping, but the columns rush on. This is a 
cavalry charge. On another part of the field a trag- 
edy is being enacted that robs Jackson of his ablest 
lieutenant and sickens the heart of the whole Con- 
federacy. A daring Confederate officer, riding a 
foaming steed, has gathered a small force and 



292 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

dashed them against a Federal regiment of in- 
fantry, the Pennsylvania Bucktails, commanded by 
Col. Kane. It is a critical moment in the battle. 
The officer is Turner Ashby. His long black hair, 
as black as a raven's wing, make him a conspicuous 
figure. He is to Jackson what Stuart is to Lee. It 
is a hot and stubborn fight. Ashby is everywhere 
animating his men. Suddenly his horse goes down 
and Ashby is afoot. Then a bullet pierces Ashby's 
heart. Now both rider and horse are dead on the 
field; but the First Maryland and part of a Vir- 
ginia regiment drive back the enemy and capture 
their leader, the gallant Col. Kane. When brought 
into the Confederate lines, referring to Ashby, Col. 
Kane said: "I saw this officer several times during 
the day. He seemed to be always in the front. 
When his horse fell, three of my men leveled their 
guns on the rider. I stopped two of them and 
struck up the gun of the third. I thought him too 
brave a man to be shot down in that way." 

These rapidly shifting events give the observer 
some conception of what war is. Yonder we see 
clouds of smoke and dust rolling like sea billows 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 293 

back toward Harrisonburg, This tells the story. 
Fremont is beaten and is leaving the field. 

A few miles eastward (see map), just across 
the Shenandoah, Shields' vanguard appears, and 
Jackson, leaving Ewell to take care of Fremont, 
determines to cross the river and head off Shields. 
The river is too high to ford. Jackson constructs 
a bridge of wagons during the night, crosses a por- 
tion of his army, and in a stubborn battle defeats 
Shields. The losses on both sides are heavy. Will 
Jackson follow Shields down the Luray Valley, or 
will he recross the river and capture or drive Fre- 
mont down the Shenandoah Valley, or will he cross 
the Blue Ridge and move on Washington? Fre- 
mont, Shields and the Government at Washington 
are in a dilemma. In the midst of their confusion 
Jackson and his whole army suddenly and myste- 
riously disappear. The wires are hot with mes- 
sages asking, Where is Jackson? Federal forces 
are rushing to the defense of the capital. The artist 
here will do some of his finest work as he depicts 
Jackson and his retinue leaving the stage. Jackson 
has an engagement in front of Richmond, and is 
hurrying across the mountain to keep it. 



294 F^OM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

RECAPITULATION. 

This phenomenal campaign lasted three months 
and ten days. Jackson's opponents — Milroy, 
Banks, Fremont, Shields, McDowell and others — 
were able commanders. Their soldiers fought 
bravely whenever Jackson gave them an opportu- 
nity. With his small army of 4600, increased to 
15,000, he compelled the Washington Government 
to keep within the vicinity of the capital not less 
than 50,000 troops; to hold McDowell at Fred- 
ericksburg with 40,000, and Banks, Fremont and 
Shields in the valley with 50,000. But for Jackson 
in the valley, this entire force of 130,000 troops 
might have been with McClellan before Rich- 
mond. And this is not all. Jackson's warlike 
prowess and rapid movements, coupled with his 
name and fame, held these large forces at bay until 
he and his army could withdraw from the valley 
and move to the aid of Gen. Lee in his battles with 
McClellan before Richmond. Jackson's genius in 
war, fidelity to duty as he saw it and his devout loy- 
alty to his God entitle him to a place among the 
world's heroes. As I view it, "Stonewall" Jackson 
does not belong to the South alone. He is the 
South's gift to the nation. 




G:ENEKAL THOMAS JONATHAN (STONEWALL) JACKSON, 

"That Thunderbolt of War." 
From a photograph taken in Winchester, Va., in the fall of 1S62. 



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CHAPTER XV. 

Lee's Army Asleep. 

"Around the mighty master came 

Tlie marvels which his pencil wrought — 
Those miracles of power whose fame 
Is wide as human thought." 

It is a cold November night, but not so cold as 
to cause the soldiers to bunk together for comfort. 
Soldiers want plenty of room. They feel their im- 
portance, and like to spread themselves when there 
is an abundance of mother earth to be had without 
the asking and the enemy is not too close; so tonight 
each soldier, wrapped in his own blanket, is lying 
without any regard to order. It is 12 o'clock; the 
camp-fires are burning brightly. Some have se- 
lected places close enough to the fire to absorb some 
of its heat; others prefer a cooler place. If you see 
an object wrapped as close as a mummy and com- 
pletely covered head and foot, with its head to the 
fire and its feet in the opposite direction, it is a son 
of Africa. Sambo has a thick skull and is some- 
what of a philosopher. He thinks the best way of 
knowing when he is comfortably warm is to heat 

2d£ 



296 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

the organ of sense, so he puts that part of his anat- 
omy as close to the fire as is safe. Counting all, 
without regard to color or previous condition, there 
are about 75,000 of these queer-looking objects over 
many thousand acres. A single county is seldom 
big enough to furnish ample sleeping space for 
such an army. In the picture you can count 12,000 
camp-fires, each fire indicated by its column of 
smoke, and casting as many shadows as there are 
objects intercepting its light. Around the camp 
about the only things observing order are the guns 
stacked in rows, as a farmer would stack his har- 
vested corn. Considering the noise these guns can 
make, they, too, seem to be asleep. I can count at 
least 300 cannon, also asleep, but with mouths wide 
open ready to bark at a moment's notice. There are 
as many more gun carriages and caissons, whose 
tired wheels are all at rest. There are also 25,000 
horses, and these are so modest that generally they 
won't go to bed until the men are all asleep. They 
act as if they didn't like to be seen lying down; for 
before doing so, the most of them will wait until i 
o'clock, when, the fires burning low and the camp 
having reached its deathlike hour, they slowly draw 
their feet together, quietly lie down and drop ofif to 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 297 

sleep. A solitary army wagon bespattered with 
mud is not a very imposing object, but when all the 
wagons necessary for the proper equipment are 
gathered together, in them alone is there material 
for a picture worthy of an artist. Of course, they 
are an essential part of this picture. When in mo- 
tion they are the noisiest part of the whole army 
except when a battle is on. They will rattle and 
clatter the whole day long, but tonight we see them 
with their long bodies covered with white canvas, 
their tired wheels at rest and their long tongues as 
silent as the grave. 

At 2 o'clock, the hour when churchyards yawn, 
the picture is at its best. Everything is as quiet as 
death, the sentinels alone excepted. The latter are 
not supposed to sleep, but the dim outlines of their 
forms, their soft catlike tread as they move on their 
beats, the weird shadowy surroundings, seem to rob 
them of flesh and blood, and in the picture they are 
but ghostly apparitions, present only to disturb the 
dreams of the weary men and horses. 

Such, in brief, is the outline of a picture that is 
ever before me. As I look at it and think how like 
death sleep is, another picture comes into view, one 
that Byron has immortalized in his poetical de- 



298 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

scription of the destruction of Sennacherib's army 
before the walls of Jerusalem: 

"When the angel of death spread his wings on the blast, 
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed ; 
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill, 
And their hearts but once heaved and forever grew still." 



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TEF?f?ITOf?Y Co^EKED BY 

Lee-'s Army 
DuRxtiG THE Civil War. 

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CHAPTER XVI. 

The Night Before the Battle. 

From camp to camp through the foul womb of night 

The hum of either army stilly sounds, 

That the fix'd sentinels almost receive 

The secret whispers of each other's watch : 

Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames 

Each battle sees the other's tawny face ; 

Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs, 

Piercing the night's dull ear; and from the tents 

The armourers, accomplishing the knights. 

With busy hammers closing rivets up. 

Give dreadful note of preparation : 

The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll. 

And the third hour of drowsy morning name. 

Proud of their numbers and secure in soul, 

The confident and over-lusty French 

Do the low-rated English play at dice ; 

And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night 

Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp 

So tediously away. 

When the battle of Gettysburg was in progress 
the hilltops, the treetops and housetops for many- 
miles around were crowded with eager, anxious 
faces turned toward the battlefield. Patriotism 
and anxiety for friends and relatives were respon- 
sible for much of this interest, but the desire to see 
a contest comes in for a large share of it. Wherever 
there is a trial for the mastery, whether it be a foot- 

290 



300 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 
race or a prize fight, a chariot race or a dog fight a 
boat race or a cock fight, or something greater 'or 
more honorable, the crowds will gather. Those 
who were privileged to see the combat between the 
contending forces on the field at Gettysburg in July 
1863, saw the most inspiring battle that the modern 
world has witnessed. Though you have heard 
enough of that battle, you know very little of the 
mmutis of the movements that brought together 
the forces therein engaged. No one has shown you 
on the chessboard the various moves that the master 
players made while the game was in progress-the 
castles, the bishops, the knights, the pawns, and just 
where the king and queen stood while the players 
gambled for their crowns. In Chapter VI you 
have a description of the march of the two armies 
northeast after Chancellorsville. Neither army 
knew just where it was going. When the appointed 
season comes, armies, like birds, must move. After 
Chancellorsville, Gen. Lee could not e.xpect 
Hooker to recross the Rappahannock and fight him 
agam, for Longstreet, who for several months had 
been absent in the South with one-half of his corps 
had now returned, and this partly made up for Gen' 
Lee s loss by the death of Jackson. Gen. Lee was 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 301 

always a fair fighter, and was ever willing to give 
his antagonist a chance. Perhaps it was with this 
thought in mind that at this time he began one of 
the most extraordinary movements recorded in his- 
tory. Look at the map and notice the relative posi- 
tions of Fredericksburg, Washington and Gettys- 
burg, and Hooker's great army lying across Lee's 
Iront. To reach Gettysburg, Gen. Lee must cross 
the Rappahannock, cut his way through Hooker's 
army or pass around it, pass Washington, cross the 
Blue Ridge and cross the Potomac. Notice, also, 
the marvelous order in which Gen. Lee marched 
his army after he had determined upon the route. 
One corps of his army, under A. P. Hill, remained 
near Fredericksburg, while the other two corps and 
the cavalry moved one after another, forming a line 
of march fully 60 miles long. When Longstreet was 
entering the Virginia Valley, Confederate cavalry- 
men were watering their horses in the Potomac, 
with Hill still at Fredericksburg. When Ewell 
was crossing from Maryland into Pennsylvania, 
Hill was threading his way through the defiles of 
the Blue Ridge. When Longstreet was marching 
through Maryland, Ewell was building his camp- 
fires along the banks of the Susquehanna. What an 



302 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

opportunity Lee was giving Gen. Hooker to de- 
stroy his army in detail! Ah! but Hooker was a 
better general than some give him credit for being. 
Listen to this characteristic message sent by Presi- 
dent Lincoln to Gen. Hooker when he learned that 
Lee had stretched his army out at such great length : 
*'If the snake's tail is on the Rappahannock and its 
head on the Potomac, it must be very thin some- 
where. Can't you cut it in two?" Hooker had been 
in the coil of that snake a short time before this and 
it nearly crushed the life out of him ; hence his cau- 
tion. Gen. Lee, too, was cautious, for in that en- 
counter "his right arm" was crushed and he never 
again had the use of it. (Gen. Lee visited Gen. 
Jackson just before his death, after the latter had 
received his death wound, which resulted in the 
amputation of his left arm. He said to Gen. Jack- 
son, with a forced smile playing over his face, "You 
have lost your left arm, while I have lost my right." 
"Stonewall" Jackson was Gen. Lee's right arm.) 

Notice another marvelous condition: the posi- 
tion that these armies occupy in respect to each 
other. Referring to the map, you will see Wash- 
ington, and next to Washington is Lee's cavalry 
under Stuart, and next to this body of cavalry is 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 303 

Hooker's army on the east of the Blue Ridge, while 
just over the ridge on the north side is Lee's army. 
What a strange, mysterious arrangement! What is 
Stuart doing there? Some have censured him for 
his audacity, but listen while I tell you a secret. He 
was just where Lee wanted him and where he ought 
to have been if Hooker had done what Lincoln 
wanted him to do and what Gen. Lee evidently ex- 
pected he might do — namely, try to cut the snake in 
two. Suppose that Hooker had crossed the moun- 
tain and had cut the snake in two. Snakes are not 
always dead when they have been cut in twain ; at 
least they don't seem to realize it — their bite is still 
dangerous. While Hooker was on the west side of 
the mountain dispatching the center of the snake, 
its head and its tail would have recoiled and have 
come together in front of Washington, where Stu- 
art had already assembled his cavalry. What, then, 
would have been the fate of Hooker's army and the 
Federal capital? 

It is a well-known fact that Gen. Lee did not 
choose Gettysburg for the battleground. Had Gen. 
Hooker acted upon President Lincoln's suggestion, 
the battle would have been fought in Loudoun 
county, Virginia. As Gen. Lee failed to entice 



304 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Hooker across the mountain, the former moved on 
toward Gettysburg. You now begin to realize the 
size of this picture. It stretches from Richmond 
in the south to Harrisburg in the north and is half 
as wide as it is long. Counting the forces around 
Washington — and they are really a part of the pic- 
ture — there are 275,000 men and boys, the majority 
of them in their teens; 65,000 horses, with cannon, 
wagons, ambulances, bugles, drums, banners, bands 
of music, the Blue and the Gray, marching and 
camping, going they know not where, as bright and 
as happy as children at play. All day long, all 
night long, you hear the steady tramp of infantry, 
the clattering of horses' feet, mingled with the noise 
of the rattling sabres as the cavalry pass by, the 
ceaseless rumble of the wagon trains and the dull, 
ominous cluck of the wheels of artillery. To a per- 
son watching a passing battery of artillery the pecu- 
liar heavy sounds made by the wheels as they shuffle 
on their axles give, even in times of peace, visions 
of fields strewn with mangled men and horses. 

I have somewhere seen a picture of a crouching 
lion, on a shelving rock, watching a long caravan 
of traders slowly winding its way down a mountain 
path and stretching out across the plain. The lion 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 305 

from his lair seems to be saying, "There is a good 
dinner for me in that procession, but I have been 
there before, and was glad to get away with my 
hide." So in hungry silence he sits watching his 
dinner receding farther and farther from him. 
From his signal stations Hooker on every high 
point watches another caravan offering him a 
tempting bait; but, like the lion, having been there 
before, he contents himself with moving on a line 
parallelling Lee's army, and crosses the Potomac 
below Harper's Ferry. The soldiers of both ar- 
mies are now on the north side of the Potomac, go- 
ing they know not where, but all hopeful, all happy, 
all gay. Some wear blue and some wear gray, but 
the fires of patriotism burn as brightly in the hearts 
of one as of the other. A little later and those 
wearing the gray are all in Pennsylvania, the land 
of Goshen, of milk and honey, bursting barns, wav- 
ing fields of grain, blackberries, raspberries and 
everything to delight the heart of the hungry sol- 
diers. I have often been asked how we felt when 
we got into this rich territory. It can be tersely 
expressed thus: 

"There was an old negro, who couldn't count seven ; 
Put him in a feather bed, and he thought he was in heaven." 



306 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

Please consult the map again and note how 
strangely Hooker's great army is still sandwiched 
between Lee's cavalry and his main army. By a 
little stretch of the imagination this picture would 
show Hooker's army as prisoners of war marching 
to their execution. 

A beautiful scene is the tarrying of these two 
mighty hosts at sundown for supper and perhaps 
for a good night's rest. The armies are so close 
together that when they go to camp they cannot be 
distinguished from each other except by their uni- 
forms and banners; but the picture shows both 
camps. The busy wheels have stopped, and the 
horses, unhitched and tethered, in their hunger are 
cropping the blades of grass, reaching for the 
branches of trees or gnawing fence rails. The men 
have stopped, stacked arms, unbuckled their belts 
and thrown off their accoutrements. Some are 
building fires; some are preparing supper; some, 
loaded with canteens, have gone in search of water, 
and some (the mystical) have thrown themselves 
on the ground and are gazing at the skies, trying, 
perhaps, to read the secrets that are written there. 
But remember, these are nearly all boys, and boys 
will be boys. Did you ever stand on the ocean's 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 307 

shore and look out upon the wide expanse of waters 
and watch the winds and waves at play? If you 
would witness a scene as grand and as beautiful, 
look out upon this rolling landscape just as the sun 
goes down and watch this frolicking host; you will 
say the poet was right when he wrote : 

"O war, thou hast thy fierce delight, 
Thy gleams of joy intensely bright !" 

But what of the morrow? This very spot may be 
a storm center. The midnight or the morn may 
usher in tempest. But not yet. 

By 9 o'clock all is quiet. A little later the armies 
are asleep. It is still dark when the drums beat and 
the bugles sound, calling the men and horses from 
their slumbers. Before sunrise the march is re- 
sumed. Every soldier boy in these armies knows 
as well as his commander-in-chief that they are on 
the eve of a great battle. Even the wagoners know 
it, and if the horses do not know it, they are at least 
ready to do their part. But all are hopeful, happy 
and gay. Did you ever notice on a weather map the 
indications of a gathering storm? The maker of 
the map has covered it with little black spots, 
through which an arrow is stuck; the head of the 
arrow points in the direction the wind is blowing. 



3C8 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

and if a great storm is gathering you will notice 
that these arrows, in a circle of several hundred 
miles, are all pointing toward a central spot. This 
spot is a storm center. If you could have stood on 
a high eminence in Adams county, Pennsylvania, 
on the morning of June 28, 1863, you would have 
seen alarming evidences of a gathering storm. The 
wagon trains that had been steadily moving north- 
east had suddenly stopped and were hurrying back 
southwest. Ewell, who had been marching along 
the Susquehanna and threatening Harrisburg, 
turned and followed the wagons. The troops at 
Mechanicsburg, Carlisle, Hanover, Westminster, 
Emmittsburg, Taneytown and Monterey had all — 
Blues and Grays — turned their faces toward one 
central point. Everything south was moving north ; 
everything west was moving east; everything east 
was moving west; everything north was moving 
south. It is contended that Gen. Lee had chosen 
Cashtown and the base of the mountain for the bat- 
tlefield, and that Gen. George G. Meade, who had 
superseded Hooker, had chosen the ridges at Pipe 
Creek, near Westminster, for the battlefield; but 
some unseen power seems to have selected another 
spot. When Gen. Lee, mounted on Traveller, 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 309 

reached Chambersburg, his thoughts were on Cash- 
town, but some unseen hand took Traveller's bridle 
rein and turned his head toward Gettysburg. 
Meade was looking toward Westminster and plan- 
ning for the battle there, but some unseen hand 
turned his horse's head toward Gettysburg. The 
tide and the winds were sweeping everything that 
way. 

GETTYSBURG. 

Five hundred and thirteen regiments of infantry 
arrive one after another, and march in and take po- 
sitions as if preparing to see a play. Six thousand 
horses pull 600 cannon and as many caissons into 
position on the hilltops just behind the lines of in- 
fantry. The ordnance wagons and the ambulances 
are close at hand. On the flanks and back of the 
artillery 30,000 cavalrymen take positions and 
await orders. These men and their horses have 
acted as guards of honor for the armies all through 
their long march, cutting their way through a hos- 
tile country, crossing bridges, fording rivers, guard- 
ing the wagon trains, protecting the precious-bur- 
dened ordnance wagons that carry the very heart of 
the armies, keeping in touch with the enemy all day 



310 FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 

long and all night long, being the first and the last 
to cross the rivers, and are now ready to do their 
part of the work when the artillery and the in- 
fantry have finished. This is the setting of the pic- 
ture — the Blues and the Grays — 200,000 men and 
60,000 horses. The curtain is up, the bands are 
playing and the tragedy begins — a play in which 
the players play to the actors. 

The Danck of Death. 

"Last moon beheld them full of lusty life, 
Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay; 
The midnight brought the signal sound of strife, 
The morn the marshaling in arms — the day 
Battle's magnificently stern array ! 
The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which, when rent, 
The earth is covered thick with other clay, 
Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, 
Rider and horse, friend, foe — in one red burial blent !" 

As this picture dissolves, others develop in rapid 
succession, until the whole drama, ^^From Bull Run 
to Appomattox,'' passes the old soldier's mental 
vision. The fact is, his children and his children's 
children keep the pageantry ever moving. Child 
nature craves scenes where heroes play a part; 
hence children's love for war stories, and as this is 
about all that many of the old soldiers have to leave 
their children, is it any wonder that they are so 



FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATTOX. 3II 

solicitous for the preservation of the great drama 
of the sixties in which they were actors? 

But there is still another picture to be preserved. 
It is the last act of that bloody tragedy. Appomat- 
tox did not end all. The Blues and the Grays are 
still fighting, but it is dififerent. Forty-five years 
have passed, and fighting still? Yes, but it is differ- 
ent. The Blues and the Grays are together fighting 
a common foe, and his name is Death. We were 
once his allies, and right well we served him in his 
bloody work, but there is a change. The Blues and 
the Grays are now fighting side by side. The boys 
were good fighters in the sixties and the old men are 
fighters still; but they'll lose the battle — Death 
always wins. He has slain all our horses and nearly 
.all our comrades, and we'll lose this battle; but 
we'll die on the field, boot and spur, and the boys 
that are and the boys that are to be will be better 
players in life's drama because of the Blues and the 
Grays that were. 

"Life is the mirror of king and slave — 

*Tis just what you are and do; 
Then give to the world the best you have, 
And the best will come back to you." 



The two pictures followinc; this leaf show, first, the recumbent 
statue of General R. E. Lee, Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate 
armies, Virginia's noblest son and the Nation's hero. Born January 
19, 1807, at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia; died October 
12, 1870. His mausoleum is the Lee Memorial Chapel, situated on 
the campus of the Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Va., 
of which he was president from 1865 until his death. 

The only inscription on the tomb are these words: 
Robert Edward Lee. 



The other picture represents a Confederate Banner as it takes its 
flight across the field of Mars to regions beyond the stars. It is 
said to be the conception of an artist who doubtless got his inspira- 
tion from reading a little poem entitled "The Conquered Banner," by 
Abram J. Ryan (Father Ryan), a Catholic priest known wherever 
the English language is spoken. 




"Tlic Warrior's Ilaiiiicr Takes Its l"Iif.'lil to (irect llic Warriors Soul." 



Note. — I said in the beginning that I had not consulted any of 
the Civil War histories for material for this book. After the manu- 
script was in type I read for the first tim.e James Longstrcet's book 
on the Civil War, also Henderson's "Life of Jackson," and I am 
indebted to these two authors for some facts in regard to the losses 
in battle and the number engaged. To the latter I am indebted for 
the account of the tragic wounding and death of Stonewall Jackson. 
These additions are mostly to be found in footnotes throughout the 
book. 

The Author. 



The above has reference to the first edition of this book. Since its 
publication I have received several letters from some of the old 
soldiers of the North, objecting to the high estimate that I placed 
upon General McClellan as a commander. I must admit that my 
judgment .in such matters is at least reviewable. In the statement 
about McClellan I was chiefly influenced by what General Lee had 
said about him (see page 44). My critics must remember that the 
odds against McClellan with respect to the generals whom he con- 
fronted were very great. Was any army of the world ever so 
skilfully officered as a whole as was the army that McClellan faced? 
Again, think of the mountains, the hills, the rivers and the deep 
tangled forests, which Lee and Jackson employed so successfully as 
allies in fighting their battles. While McClellan was calling for more 
men, his opponents were marshaling these physical forces and using 
them with telling eff'ect. Jackson depended almost entirely upon the 
Blue Ridge and Massanutton mountains and the Shenandoah river 
and its branches to hold in check not less than 80,000 Federal troops, 
while with incredible speed he moved his army to the aid of General 
Lee before Richmond. General Lee used the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
the Potomac river and the hills beyond, as walls of defense while he 
marched to Gettysburg and back. But for these physical forces, 
which Lee knew so well how to employ, the Gettysburg campaign 
would never have been a part of history. McClellan, and indeed all 
of the commanders of the Army of the Potomac, seemed to have 
failed to properly estimate the value of the silent forces that nature 
had so lavishly provided for those who knew how to employ them. 

The Author. 



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